Tax season is just around the corner, and you are needed to volunteer for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. This amazing program, powered by the United Way of Greenville County, provides free tax preparation services to anyone making 60,000 a year or under, and it is run by volunteers. We would love for you to be one of those. And today, you’ll hear from Tiffany Bannister, Vita regional program manager. She’ll talk about how you can volunteer for VITA, some of the rewards that you’ll get for doing so, and all the ways that it makes a difference in the lives of people in our community.
Learn more at: https://unitedwaygc.org
Produced by The Greenville Podcast Company. Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville.
Transcript
Katy Smith
Tiffany, thanks so much for being here with us today.
Tiffany Bannister
Thank you for having me.
Katy Smith
I am really excited to introduce listeners to the VITA program and the important opportunity that you have for folks who might be interested in volunteering. So can we start by you giving us an overview about what VITA is?
Tiffany Bannister
So Vita stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. It is a nationwide program that offers free tax preparation for anyone that makes under $60,000 per year. For this program, we are basically ran just by community volunteers, some students, as well as former IRS reps. Our representatives that usually just come and volunteer with us.
Katy Smith
That’s amazing. So anyone who makes 60,000 or less can come in and have experts for free do their tax preparation.
Tiffany Bannister
Yes, they can. Just to go a little more in detail about the expertise our tax preparer has. Each tax preparer must basically pass a certification test that is regulated by the IRS. So it goes over different like tax topics that changed throughout the years, dependencies filing status. So once they are trained and past that certification test – that’s when they have all the knowledge needed to complete a tax return.
Katy Smith
Excellent. Well, I can see how if it’s a free, excellent service, then you really do rely on those volunteers. So what are you looking for in someone who could be a VITA volunteer?
Tiffany Bannister
So taxes sometimes seem very intimidating, right? To most people. But the taxes is that we do at a Vita site, average person is making like maybe $30,000 and only have like one W2. So the only thing that you have to do is help determine that person filing status by asking them just some general questions about if they are single, if they are married or if they have like a dependent for that, and they answer it the information into our tax software system that does all the calculations for you. So for a volunteer, the only thing we need is someone that is good with a computer and just good with customer service, talking with people, just interested in someone life and what they have or what they did for the year. Because when we do taxes, I like to call us a little bit of therapy. We get into what they make for the year, they tell us about if they had hard time for the year, things they overcame, or if they bought a new house, a new car. So it’s kind of like celebrating with our clients for the year that they have. And even if they don’t have a successful year, kind of put that motivation or put that hope in them like, hey, this year is gonna be a different year for you. No matter what happened in the past. We’re here for you. And we’re gonna get through this together.
Katy Smith
Tiffany, I love that. I mean, I had really thought about tax preparation just as filling in boxes on a form and hopefully getting a refund to someone but to know, I mean, of course, there’s so much emotion that goes with money, either joy of success, or despair about any hard turn someone’s had. And if you are sitting there with that person’s financial information in your hands, you really can be a big support to them emotionally as well as technically.
Tiffany Bannister
Yes. So with our VITA site, we also try to connect our clients with different community resources that’s out there. So if someone is expressed that they need some food assistance or something, we can have that resource like hey, this is a resource in the community that you can go to. So we try to offer that free resource group as well.
Katy Smith
Are there any minimum qualifications that a volunteer needs, like age or experience or anything?
Tiffany Bannister
So there’s no experience needed. We do have an age around 16 and older. And it just make sure, you know, criminal backgrounds and everything like that.
Katy Smith
Sure, that’s a really neat experience for a high school student even. So once someone says, Okay, this sounds like something I want to do, what do they do to sign up and get trained?
Tiffany Bannister
They can visit our website at UnitedWaygc.org and then go on to the Get Involved tab and click volunteers, and then volunteer for VITA.
Katy Smith
Great. And then once they’ve gone on the website and declared their interest, what is the training look like for them.
Tiffany Bannister
So it depends on the role that you will like, we have three different roles at a normal VITA site. First is the greeter. So that’s the person that will make sure the taxpayer have an appointment with us. Make sure they fill out all the necessary forms, and then double check to make sure they have their photo ID and social security card. Once the greeter have all that information, they will assign them to a tax preparer, the tax preparer is the person just like I said, the therapist, that will just go through the forms, ask certain questions or clarify questions to determine what is needed to be put on the tax return and then enter it into the system. Once they are finished entering in, we do have a quality review process. So every return that is completed by Vita must go through a quality review. So quality review requires another volunteer or tax preparer to double check that person’s work. So when that happens, it’s kind of like a sense of security, that you’re not responsible for this person taxes, we always want to make sure we go through that process of that.
Katy Smith
You have a team there. Yeah, that’s great. And is there a minimum requirement of hours that someone should put in? What kind of time expectation is it for a volunteer?
Tiffany Bannister
So going back to your first question about training. Training for a greeter is about two hours for that to happen. When you are a tax preparer, that’s a little more training, because you are actually using tax knowledge. So once they have completed all the training, and complete the certification exam, you can volunteer as many hours or as least hours that you would like just depending on what you want.
Katy Smith
And if someone were to do as many hours as possible, what are the hours that tax preparation is available.
Tiffany Bannister
So we do have a site open, coming up next year, every day of the week and usually our shifts are four hours per day. So they can volunteer one day a week, two days a week, every day, it depends on whatever they will like.
Katy Smith
That’s amazing. So how many volunteers are you looking for for a tax season?
Tiffany Bannister
So right now we are looking for additional – because we do have some volunteers that are returning. We have longtime volunteers that always come back. So we’re looking for maybe around 25-30 new volunteers who can serve in the role of tax preparer.
Katy Smith
Okay, great. Well, that sounds like an easy call to answer because we know we have hundreds of listeners, and I’m sure that there are at least a couple dozen of you out there who this might really be a great spot for you. So I hope you’ll follow up to the call. So when the tax season is over, how many tax returns will these volunteers have prepared?
Tiffany Bannister
So we do on average, around 8000 returns across the upstate.
Katy Smith
8000 returns? That is amazing. What a resource. Do you have any interesting stories you could tell about volunteers experiences, any volunteers who you’ve worked with who really enjoyed it or got to see some real significant impact?
Tiffany Bannister
Yes, so come to mind. It was a first year volunteer last year. They were very nervous about volunteering. They didn’t know what to expect. But once they got into just having a simple communication or conversation with the taxpayer, they realized the impact that they have on that person life and one taxpayer they was talking with, they were Spanish speaking. So having to translate tax law to Spanish, even to like Google Translate was difficult but we were a able to get it done. But that person was looking for their refund because they needed to pay for their rent for the upcoming month. That taxpayer also had kids. So she was in desperate need of this refund to make sure she can stay in her home with her kids, and also be able to provide like living expenses. So food, shelter, water, and everything of that. So once the volunteer was able to help her out, the volunteer have kind of felt relief and also was able to connect with her in a deeper level of this person is working so hard, and trying to do their best. And whatever I can make a change or help out. I’m going to do it no matter what.
Katy Smith
Wow, it seems like really the best of a volunteer experience. Because as a volunteer, you are offering a really important life changing service to someone. But you are also changed dramatically in the doing of the service I’m sure, as you meet all of these folks and hear their stories and connect with them.
Tiffany Bannister
Yes, and it changes from year to year. Some people you will get back again even like, Hey, I remember you from last year and like how was it going? How’s the kids? How’s the grandkids? So building that connection with them is one of my favorite part about Vita, just to get to sit down and hear people’s stories and see how I can learn for them.
Katy Smith
That is really special. Well, anything else you want our listeners to know.
Tiffany Bannister
So if you cannot volunteer yourself, anyone that you think may be a good possible volunteer, kind of put that bug in their ear to like, hey, this program is out there that needs volunteers just like you. You can come and help.
Katy Smith
That is really outstanding. Hearing that age limit, you realize that there are high school students who might be interested in banking or finance or accounting. There might be retirees who are really good with a calculator. All of those people or someone who’s working full time but wants to take a Saturday to help would be great candidates. So hopefully lots of you all will hear yourselves in Tiffany’s description and stories and we’ll follow up by going to www.UnitedWaygc.org and getting involved. Tiffany, thanks so much for being here with us and for all that you do for people of the upstate.
Tiffany Bannister
Thank you so much for having me.
Catherine Puckett
Simple civics. Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville partnership for philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org This is a production of the Greenville podcast company.
