VITA Volunteer Opportunities
Provide free tax service for low to moderate income families to ease their financial stress of having to pay for tax preparation.
Program: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
You are interested in personal income tax, and/or you are interested in helping people.
You are wanted!
Come join us - Ren Locus-Volunteer Income Tax Assistance at Vancouver.
You can help many low to moderate income families by providing free tax preparation, help them apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Washington Working Family Tax Credit. The money will ease some of their financial burden.
Each year, we help hundreds of low-income families apply for qualified tax credits and save hundreds of dollars in tax preparation fees for each family.
With your effort, you can provide them some relief from their anguish and financial stress.
We provide you with flexible hours and training. All you need to do is sign up!
Several different types of volunteers are needed for the 2025 tax season. Some opportunities require tax certification and some don’t. For details, see the position descriptions below.
We are especially interested in these areas:
Tax Preparers
Quality Reviewers
Assistant Site Coordinators
Multilingual skills (Spanish, Vietnamese, etc.)
Program Description: in partnership with the IRS’s VITA program, we provide free tax return preparation for low to moderate income taxpayers, limited English speaking taxpayers and persons with disabilities.
Duration:
Tax season, February 1 through April 15, 2025
Year round - May 5 through October 27, 2025
Time Commitment: at least four hours per week (the more the merrier).
When: We will provide services six days per week. Most days will be 10 am-6pm with two days 1-9 pm (see below).
Locations : we provide service in a few different locations throughout Clark County (see below).
Training: We will be providing training or you can use the IRS training resources.
Requirements: see position descriptions. Once your training is complete and you have passed the necessary tests, a Volunteer Standards of Conduct Agreement - VITA/TCE Programs is also required. All volunteer opportunities have general requirements.
Volunteers Needed for each shift:
four to five tax preparers
three to four quality reviewers
one to two interpreters
one assistant site coordinator
Position Descriptions:
-
Duties: Provide free tax return preparation for qualified taxpayers.
Interview taxpayers using the intake/interview form.
Review documents, ask questions, and enter information in tax software.
Qualifications: take training and pass a test for
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct – Ethics Training
- Intake/Interview Training
- Complete training (basic or advanced) and successfully certify in tax law, including the use of electronic filing software.
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct Agreement - VITA/TCE Programs -
Duties: Review returns prepared by Volunteer Tax Preparers, by interviewing the taxpayer and giving feedback to the Tax Preparer.
Qualifications: take training and pass a test for
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct – Ethics Training
- Intake/Interview Training
- Complete training and successfully certify in tax law
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct Agreement - VITA/TCE Programs -
Duties: During the intake and interview process, provide language interpretation for taxpayers who speak languages other than English. Particularly Spanish.
Qualifications: take training and pass a test for
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct – Ethics Training
- Intake/Interview Training
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct Agreement - VITA/TCE Programs
If you have multilingual skills, we encourage you to consider the Tax Preparer and Quality Review positions. -
Duties: Assist the Site Coordinator manage the operations of the site.
Help with setup and take down of the room and equipment. Help greet and check in clients. Assist staff with administrative tasks and issues. Other duties as needed.
If you complete the tax training and successfully certify in tax law, you may also prepare tax returns and/or do quality review.Qualifications: take training and pass a test for
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct – Ethics Training
- Intake/Interview Training
- Site Coordinator
- Complete training and successfully certify in tax law (optional)
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct Agreement - VITA/TCE Programs
More Information and Training Materials:
For training use the resources below. We will provide you with details about the process.
Once training is complete, certification tests are taken online on VITA/TCE Central and a Volunteer Agreement is generated and signed..
More Information on the IRS website
Publication 4491, VITA/TCE Training Guide
Publication 4012, Volunteer Resource Guide
training tool and reference guide
print copy available
Publication 6744, Test/Retest ***
used for certification
*** Important Test Updates: Before submitting your test on VITA/TCE Central, check here to see if there have been any updates to the tests.
online certification tests
training resources
for Pub 4491 chapter workouts select “Click here to see the content of each course.”
Training for All Volunteers
Volunteer Standards of Conduct – Ethics Training
IRS Publication 4961, VITA/TCE - Volunteer Standards of Conduct
Training for Tax Preparers
Intake/Interview Training
Publication 5101, Intake/Interview and Quality Review Training
delivers training that is designed to encourage all volunteers to follow a thorough and consistent Intake/interview and Quality Review process.
Webinars
Intake/Interview and Quality Review Training (1:16:01 hours)
Form 13614-C Overview and Job Aid Training (44:09 minutes)
For tax season 2025, Form 13614-C Intake/Interview and Quality Review Sheet has been updated. The training reviews the updates to the form.
Basic and Advanced Levels
Use Pub 4491 to study. Pub 4012 is also a good resource.
Publication 4491, VITA/TCE Training Guide
to see what is included in the Advanced and Basic levels, open form 13614-C Intake/Interview and Quality Review Sheet, and go to parts III, IV, and V. Items labeled with a (B) are Basic and those labeled with a (A) are Advanced.
Publication 4491-X, VITA/TCE Training Supplement (not updated for 2024 yet)
Updates to volunteer training materials. Normally updated in November/December.
Ren Locus - VITA Training Videos
A series of videos based on Pub 4491.
See the 2024 VITA Training playlist
Link & Learn has “workouts” which review some of the examples and exercises in Pub 4491 and then provide additional exercises and sample test questions.
IRS Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet – Volunteer Training (not updated for 2024 yet)
Shifts and Locations:
Mondays and Tuesdays
Except Monday, February 17
4 Hour Shifts:
Tax Preparer:
12:45 pm - 4:45 pm
4:45 pm - 8:45 pm
Quality Reviewer:
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location:
Clark County Food Bank
6502 NE 47th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98661
(directions)
(map)
Bus/C-Tran routes:
The closest stops are about a 15-20 minute walk. about 0.7-0.9 miles
Wednesdays and Thursdays
4 Hour Shifts:
Tax Preparer:
9:45 am - 1:45 pm
1:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Quality Reviewer:
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location:
Fourth Plain Community Commons
3101 E 4th Plain Blvd Ste.101, Vancouver, WA 98661
(directions)
(map)
Bus/C-Tran routes:
Fridays and Saturdays
4 Hour Shifts:
Tax Preparer:
9:45 am - 1:45 pm
1:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Quality Reviewer:
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location:
Three Creeks Community Library
800-C NE Tenney Rd, Vancouver, WA 98685
(directions)
(map)
Bus/C-Tran routes:
#105 I-5 Express via Salmon Creek Park & Ride
Interested?
If you are interested in volunteering or learning more about VITA, submit our Volunteer Interest Form.
Looking for a different opportunity?
We have several other volunteer opportunities.