Agenda 8:30 Greet & Caffeinate 9:00 Introduction & Agenda Review of NH Tax-Aide Recognition...

Agenda• 8:30 Greet & Caffeinate

• 9:00 Introduction & Agenda

• Review of NH Tax-Aide

• Recognition

• Long-term Goals

• TY2011 Plans

• What’s New

• IRS Update

• Volunteer coordination

• Training

• Computers

• Lunch

• General discussion

Review of NH Tax-Aide: State Leadership

ADS Vicki Laforet [email protected]

TRS Deb Hatcherdeb-

[email protected]

TCS Wayne Eddy [email protected]

PVSHarvey Epstein

[email protected]

PCS Les Scammon [email protected]

SC Jan Nedelka [email protected]

New!New!

New!New!

New!New!

Review of NH Tax-Aide: District Leadership

North Country

Chuck Martindill [email protected]

Grafton-Sullivan

Gus Seamans [email protected]

Carroll County

Howie Knightxcaliber1@roadrunner

.comConcord Les Scammon [email protected]

Monadnock Bunny [email protected]

t

ManchesterJim

[email protected]

Nashua Kaye [email protected]

et

Seacoast Harvey Epsteinharveyiepstein@gmail

.com

New!New!

Recognition• 20 Years with Tax-Aide

• Cecile Chabot

• Norma Rose

• Ruth Cunniff

• Owen Latham

• Ann Saad

• Five volunteers with ten years of service

• Twenty-eight volunteers with five years of service

Long term Goals for New Hampshire• 100% Taxwise Online by 2014

• Last year we were at 40% - in top ten in nation; some states already closing in on 100%

• Succession Plans at every level by 2013

•No one-person sites by 2012 (okay, that’s short term)

• Strong TC in every district - distinct from DC by 2013

TY2011:What’s New

•Tax Law: Few changes (barring a ‘gift’ from congress in December)

•One new form - Form 8949

TY2011: What’s New

•TaxWise Changes

•TaxWise Online tweaked to be more like desktop

•MeF active from the state - accept/rejects in less than 10 minutes


IRS Changes•No longer need to retain 1099s

•No longer need to retain W-2s

•No longer need to retain 8879s (federal and state)

•New training requirement: Standards of Conduct (painless & common sense)

•Dramatically cutting back on printed training material - nothing printed in 2014


Standards of Conduct• I will follow the Quality Site Requirements (QSR)

• I will not accept payment or solicit donations for federal or state tax return preparation

• I will not solicit business from taxpayers I assist or use the knowledge I gained about them (their information) for any direct or indirect personal benefit for me or any other specific individual.

• I will not knowingly prepare false returns

• I will not engage in criminal, infamous, dishonest, notoriously disgraceful conduct, or any other conduct deemed to have a negative effect on the VITA/TCE Programs.

• I will treat all taxpayers in a professional, courteous, and respectful manner


Standards of Conduct• Jake is a volunteer preparer in the

VITA/TCE Programs. When preparing a return for Jill, Jake learns that Jill does not have an account to receive a direct deposit of her refund. Jake offers to use his account to receive the direct deposit, and says he will turn the money over to Jill once the refund is deposited. Is this an acceptable action under the program? a. Yes b. No


Tax-Aide• Lots of stuff!

• Standards of Professionalism

• Incident Review Protocol

• Volunteer recruitment through Portal

• Milage-only expense through Portal

• Nasty Budget Crunch (~25%)

• Everyone must have a unique email address

• No surveys (tear them off if using old envelopes)

• Generic XP images, generic Win7 images

• Printers can be fixed by same folks who provide toner

• All volunteers, including new, may now take all tests online

• May use public wifi networks for TWO


NH Tax-Aide•Computer allocation and distribution

will be coordinated by TCS (Wayne)

•Several ‘dead’ laptops will be replaced with new ones from national; Wayne has resurrected a couple others.

•If wireless routers are needed, they can be supplied


Tax-Aide• Standards of Professionalism dovetails with IRS’ standards of

conduct, but encompasses treatment and expectations of volunteers as well as clients. Volunteers now agree to allow background checks...if someone can come up with the money.

• Incident Protocol provides a path for handling when things go bad - including violations of the standards of professionalism.

• Webinars and training available in December.

• Anticipated use is low - on the order of ~35-50 nationwide

• Example: if client says ‘you're going to hear from my lawyer’, start the protocol

• Example: If a client or a volunteer has a heart attack, start the protocol


Tax-Aide•Volunteer Recruitment

•All new potential volunteers MUST be entered into portal system

•Preferred method: Have the recruit enter their data

•Acceptable alternative: DCs or LCs may enter the volunteer’s information

•Now require an ID check on volunteers


Tax-Aide


Tax-Aide• Many reimbursements will be submitted via Portal (but

not all)

• LCs must generate their own flat-rate forms, rather than waiting for mailing from national (NH state policy)

• Individuals may now file for milage through portal

• Training available in January

• History: 23% take no reimbursement; 35% take flat rate. Remainder constitute single largest item in tax-aide budget (~50%). There will be an option to take a lesser amount

• NH will have same $300 milage ceiling as prior years w/o prior approval by SC. Approval deadline is Jan 15th.


Tax-Aide•There is now a generic Win XP

image that can be installed on pretty much any machine, and all security and software requirements are met

•National has received a grant for 9,500 Win7 licenses, but will not generally be rolled out until next year.

IRS Update

New Hampshire AARP Tax-Aide Fall Meeting 2011

Thank you again!!!!!!

Volunteer Return Preparation Program (VRPP)VITA/TCE Sites New Hampshire

68 free tax preparation Sites in New Hampshire 14,072 tax returns prepared up 6.5% from 2010 56% returns filed single filers 19% Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) returns $3.67 million in EITC claimed $17.1 million in refunds claimed $2.08 million in balance due returns filed 96% returns e-filed 60% returns Direct Deposit up from 53% in 2010 Encourage Direct Deposit & Direct Debit

SPEC Quality Initiative 2012 Ten Quality Site Requirements Complete Interview/Intake and Quality review process SPEC assistance visits

Stay within scope of VITA/TCE Program Form 13614-C mandatory

Form 13614-C in TaxWise can be used

QSS site reviews by SPEC HQ Unannounced visits in 2012

SPEC Quality Initiative 2012 (cont.) TIGTA Shopping SPEC QSS & Shopping Visits

Performed by SPEC HQ Most Common tax law errors Filing Season 2011

Investment income Taxability of pension income and SS benefits Itemized Deductions

Product Ordering Timeline Training materials are scheduled to arrive the week of

November 21st

All training products available now on irs.gov All Sites should have Publication 3189 “Volunteer e-file

Administration Guide” QSR #4 Publication 4491 CD includes all printed training materials Pub 4491 VITA/TCE Training Guide

Included pub 4491, 4491-W, 4012, 1278, & Test Form 6744

Pub 4480 Link & Learn Taxes Includes pub 4491-W, 4012 & Test Form 6744, CD of pub 4491

VITA/TCE Products FY 2012

Expanded in scope tax topics Link & Learn available November 14th SPEC transitioning to electronic products by filing season

2014 Form 13614-C revised Web based evaluations Pub 4491-X published electronically mid December for late

tax law legislation Optional e-modules on Link & Learn for those who have

passed advanced module Cancellation of debt Health Savings Accounts

TaxWise Filing Season 2012

TaxWise Online recommended where possible Much less burden on Site Coordinator Wireless not prohibited Form 8879 retention requirement eliminated,

taxpayer will retain signed copy TaxWise Software shipped 11/28/2011

Beginning with FS 2012, users have the ability to:

Switch between interview and form mode in TWO similar to Desktop

Allow Administrators to mandate use of interview mode Setup up staging groups in TWO similar to Desktop. Restrict preparers use of override Moved the “efile” button to the top of screen Added Control “E” function TaxWise Webinars on Link & Learn Practice Lab

FS 2012 TaxWise

Added: New Reviewer role Three new Prep Use Fields Time out reminder

Included Form 13614C Offering a Western Union Debit Card

FS 2012 TaxWise

Modernized e-file or MeF Year round e-filing Faster acknowledgements Prior year returns

2010 tax year during 2012 tax season More plain language error conditions Allow Adobe PDF attachments to tax returns CCH began participating in MeF in 2011

Modernized e-file or MeF (cont.)

MeF is case sensitive CCH recommends the use of CAPS lock throughout

the preparation of the tax return Punctuation or extra spaces on the Main Information

sheet will cause validation errors Special characters should not be used (i.e. hyphens,

commas, periods)

FSA: Facilitated Self Assistance Tax preparation The volunteer Program could not serve everyone who

needs assistance if they all showed up 70% of taxpayers can prepare their taxes on line at

irs.gov for free but do not know how Certified volunteer assists group of customers not one

on one tax preparation FSA an option in all 50 states ICAN www.icanefile.org

Approved for New Hampshire

http://www.icanefile.org/

Community Based Partnerships / Coalitions

Community organizations coming together to provide:

Education and Outreach Tax Preparation Financial Education/Asset Building-make customers aware

of what tax credits/resources are available

Why participate: AARP Tax-Aide is a key Partner Resources may be available/volunteers/marketing United Way is involved across New Hampshire and a key Partner Six active Community Based Partnerships in NH

Tax Credit Awareness and Education

Financial Education & Asset

Building

Tax Preparation

Community Based

Partnerships

Questions?????

603-628-7531 Gregg Woodes [email protected] Joanne Yasika [email protected]

603-628-7536 Internal Revenue Service/SPEC

1000 Elm Street Suite 900 Manchester NH 03101

mailto:[email protected]


Coalition Partners•CA$H Coalition of New Hampshire now

exists

•A statewide organization to serve a variety of financial related public service organizations and help clients move from viewing us as an isolated transaction to part of their broader financial life.

•Example of small business matching program

Volunteer Coordination

•New Portal Features

Volunteer Recruitment System – the improved new way

Why?•To provide DCs with additional information about prospective volunteer experiences and qualifications

•To allow leaders to refer potential volunteers to better matched supervisors

•No need for DC/LC to send name, address, phone, e-mail notifications to ADS

•To provide correct data entry BY prospective volunteers

•To reduce the clerical workload of ADSs

•To allow management to be aware of recruiting activity and training success

•Marketing – to evaluate the sources of potential volunteers

•Training – to be aware of when in the training process potential volunteers are determined no longer to be viable for an assignment

•Ethical/Moral qualification – to determine the extent to which potential volunteers fail to become volunteers owing to an unacceptable criminal background or failure to agree to Standards of Conduct.

2. Auto E-mail to PVS

Processing Prospects

Volunteer Portal

www.aarp.org/taxaideProspect Volunteer Form

4. Auto e-mail to DC for assignment

1. Prospective volunteer submits application online 6. Auto E-mail to

prospect

3. PVS (Harvey) routes the prospect to DC

5. DC reviews application, interviews

the prospect and changes status to

“Approve”, “No Match”, or “On Hold”

DC

Volunteer Portal

VMIS

ProspectRecords

8. ADS process “Accepted” prospect to volunteer with “Process Prospect”

in VMIS

7. DC reports certified new

volunteers to ADS via e-mail

ADS

Vicki

VMISPVS Harvey

DC

Processing Prospects

2012

• The AARP Tax-Aide web site has a shorter address, www.aarp.org/taxaide and is easier to locate using key word searches (AARP Tax-Aide, Volunteer Tax-Aide, etc) in Google.

• Registration directions are available for a prospective volunteer.

• DCs are allowed to change any status even after No Match and Accepted statuses are selected.

• E-mails for 'No Match' continue to be worded negatively - Upon request, the ADS can go into VMIS directly and change prospective volunteers to "No Match" with out triggering an e-mail

• Prospective Volunteer record does not identify the supervisor – if known include it in the notes when you approve a candidate.

Prospective Volunteer Recruitment System – DCs ViewReview Prospective Volunteer

DC determines next steps

Status Codes (Red: New/Revised)

• Submitted (Pending): means that an application has been received but no contact or action has yet been taken.

• Routed to DC (Pending approval from DC): means the application has been routed to a DC but no contact or action has yet been taken.

• DC Evaluating (In Progress): means that the application has been received by a decision maker and contact or a decision is in progress although no decision has yet been made.

• Approve: means that the prospective volunteer has been approved to be scheduled for training

AND training kits will be ordered.AND training kits will be ordered.• No Match (Reject): means the prospective volunteer appears not to be a good fit for the

AARP Tax-Aide program and the application has been rejected. To avoid the negative email To avoid the negative email sent out to the volunteer - Request the ADS to make this change sent out to the volunteer - Request the ADS to make this change

• On Hold: means that the applicant may be suitable to become a Tax-Aide volunteer at a later date.

• Duplicate: means that prospective volunteer has submitted more than one application to become a Tax-Aide volunteer

• Unqualified: means that the prospective volunteer has not passed the Ethics Qualification Test or has not signed the Volunteer Standards of Conduct.

• Accepted: means that the prospective volunteer has passed the Ethics Qualification Test, and has signed the Volunteer Standards of Conduct AND the volunteer can be processed into AND the volunteer can be processed into VMIS.VMIS.

Computers•Wayne will coordinate statewide

computer distribution

•All DCs to gather needs from LCs

•Keep Wayne’s life simple - assume he is blissfully ignorant of what you’ve done in the past, and as DC pass the consolidated information on to him - much cleaner than 50 LCs sending all kinds of stuff.

Agenda 8:30 Greet & Caffeinate 9:00 Introduction & Agenda Review of NH Tax-Aide Recognition...

Documents

Transcript of Agenda 8:30 Greet & Caffeinate 9:00 Introduction & Agenda Review of NH Tax-Aide Recognition...