MASSACHUSETTSAARP FOUNDATIONTAX-AIDE PROGRAM

SPRING WRAP-UP AND PLANNINGMEETING

4/30/2014

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Results thru April 15TY2013 TY2014

US E-Files Accepted 26,781 29,577 UP 9.5%

Mass E-Files Accepted 27,043 29,434

Married Filing Joint 6,888 7,297

Earned Income Credit 2,385 2,720 ($2.6M)

Child Tax Credit 737 812

Education Credit 275 298

Elderly Credit 84 75

Federal Refund Direct Deposits 8,713 10,067 UP 15%

Total Federal Refunds $18.8 M $20.7M UP 10%

Total Federal Bal Due $4.2 M $5.0M

SUPERB JOB BY OUR LEADERS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS!!

Recruiting New Volunteers for 2013 Tax Season

Katherine Bleyl

MA Prospective Volunteer Specialist

Volunteer Recruitment

2013:• 341 applicants• 137 (40%) certified• 142 (42%) no match/

unqualified• 62 (18%) on hold/DC

evaluating (16 applied after Jan. 15, 2014)

2012:• 388 applicants• 140 (36%) certified• 159 (41%) no

match/unqualified• 89 (23%) on hold/DC

evaluating

* Nearly all applied between Aug. 1st - Sep. 16th, 2013

Source of Potential Volunteers 2013

How Applicant Learned about TaxAide Program

2013 Total 2013 Certified (% )

2013 No Match or Unqualified

2013 On Hold, DC Evaluating

Another TaxAide volunteer

69 41 (59%) 20 8

AARP Bulletin 36 14 (39%) 16 6

AARP Magazine 34 9 (26%) 14 11

AARP Website 34 9 (26%) 15 10

Letter from AARP * 33 11 (33%) 18 4

Email from AARP 16 7 (43%) 6 3

Other 75 27 (36%) 35 13

Totals: 297/341 137 109/142 55/62

Conclusions

• Veteran TaxAide volunteers were most prolific & successful source for new potential volunteers 41of 69 (59%) certified– Similar for 2012 tax season with 52%

• Other recruiting methods resulted in 26-43% of applicants certified – Slightly improved from 2012 tax season

• AARP Audits• I was able to visit 7 Districts for AARP audits;

found no major problems.– One site – no nametags– One site – met criteria, but could have done Intake

better.– One site (not an audit) – met criteria, but took too

long on Intake (form wasn’t prefilled by Client)– Gave me a better feel how sites vary across state– Would like District help in audits next year

• Each District do one audit outside of the District by a senior District person 7

• What Went Well?• I assisted District 5 in their all hands meeting in

Jan. Helped me understand issues of other Districts.

• District 10 had mid-season/end of season meeting of DC with new volunteers.

• What worked well for you??– State Templates?– Working CORI issues

• What didn’t go well?– Timely receipt of books and software.

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MASSACHUSETTS CORI(CRIMINAL OFFENDER RECORD INFORMATION)

Managed byDepartment of Criminal Justice Information Services

(DCJIS)

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• Sites Candidates to be Closed!• Districts 2, 3, 4, 7, 16, 17, 25 -- NONE• District 5 Northampton• District 6 none (removed Kingston)• District 9 Melrose• District 10 Callahan SC, Waltham, Wayland• District 18 Bourne, Harwich, Sandwich• District 20 Billerica, Westford

• 10 TOTAL AS OF NOW

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• CORI Background– Since 1996 MA TA volunteers have been CORI’d– Current CORI form requires DOB and last six of SSN

• Requests are made and results received on-line

– Historically less than 10% of MA COA’s have required their own CORI of TA volunteers

– Volunteers in town programs must be CORI’d by the town• Tax-Aide is not a town run program, but a few

towns feel the need to CORI because they sponsor /support us.

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• Recent History– In TY2012, 6 to 10 additional locations required

their own CORI.– Initial TY2013 inputs pointed to a significant

increase in towns requiring CORI, including most of Cape Cod.

– We closed a small number of problem sites in TY2013, but worked with many sites who finally agreed not to require CORI.

• Certification that all of our volunteers for that town were CORI’d by us

• Written statements by towns that they weren’t responsible for our staff or our work

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• Issues– Volunteer objections: Personal data in multiple

locations; some volunteers may work at as many as 6 locations

– Concern over security of any feedback– Agencies receiving feedback are not allowed to

share results.– Some volunteers may decline to submit multiple

applications.– Many COA’s have concluded that they need to do

a CORI every year if there is a “break in service”.– Large inconsistencies in town CORI policy.

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• What To Do, page 1– We don’t have proof of CORI for our volunteers who

started before 2011.– We need to periodically re-CORI all volunteers—

every 3 to 5 years.– All Cape Cod volunteers were re-CORI’d last year;

we’ll plan to re-CORI about half of before 2011 volunteers in coming year, including all volunteers at problem sites.

– We will certify to any site requesting it that all of our volunteers at that site have a current CORI and we will provide a list of such volunteers

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• What To Do, page 2– Immediate letter from Ligon and/or DC stating

that based on their CORI policy we will need to close their site for the coming year.

– Offer an olive branch that we have been able to work out acceptable arrangements with all but a few Massachusetts sites and would like to see if something is possible with their site.

– Conclude that we need to make a final decision by July 1, so that we can make alternate plans for reassigning our personnel and for serving our Clients from your town elsewhere

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• Sample of What Works at some sites!• Obtain written confirmation from AARP of the

specific individuals that they have conducted CORI review for. These individuals can serve as AARP volunteers to be performed on Town property i.e. Senior Center. We must post a notice in the space used by AARP volunteers stating: “The volunteers providing tax counseling services are volunteers of AARP and as such have been trained and screened by the AARP in compliance with applicable state law” (message from Town Counsel)

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• EFIN Background– Every EFIN has a ‘Primary’ site, many EFIN’s have

one or more ‘Satellite’ sites.– You can close a SIDN and re-open or re-name in

future– Once closed EFIN’s are closed forever.– Managing EFIN’s is a little like navigating the

Affordable Care website; it involves a number of different databases.

– If you change the Primary site for one of your EFIN’s, it’s best done when ordering software

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• EFIN Status– Two MA EFIN’s had none of their returns reported

this year because they closed their primary site and considered one of the secondary sites the primary.

– Why do we care?• Unreported returns reduce program funding• EFINS with no activity for 2 years are closed.

– We’ve temporarily reopened the 2 primaries (for admin purposes) and believe the data count will now flow and get picked up in a month.

– IMPORTANT: We must identify primary site when ordering software; we must identify any satellite sites before start of tax season.

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• EFIN Current Actions– Complete mapping of SIDN’s vs EFIN’s as of end of

TY13• Most Districts have updated.

– Dean Strack, Cathy Fitzgerald, Mary Anne Doyle and I are exploring better ways to manage the EFIN tracking/ordering process.

• Incremental Ordering• Less cut and paste or re-type of input data, etc.

– Expect updates in your direction over summer and at Fall meeting

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TECHNOLOGY TOPICS

1. UPGRADE ALL AARP LOPTOPS TO WIN72. CONSUMABLES AND EQUIPMENTREPAIR3. SWITCHING TO TWO4. ORDERING SOFTWARE5. HOT SPOTS

1. WINDOWS 7 UPGRADE

• ALL AARP COMPUTERS HAVE BEEN UPGRADED TO WIN 7

• REGISTER AARP LAPTOPS TO NATIONAL DATABASE WITH NEW TIA TOOL

• RUN WINDOWS UPDATE PERIODICALLY DURING OFF SEASON. Monthly is best.

2. CONSUMABLES AND EQUIPMENT REPAIR

• TRY TO CONSOLIDATE ORDERS TO MINIMIZE SHIPPING COSTS

• ALL AARP PRINTERS AND COMPUTERS WILL BE REPAIRED BY GRACEWORKZ

• NO REIMBURSEMENT FOR PERSONAL INKJET PRINTER CARTRIDGES

3. SWITCHING TO TWO

• CHECK SITES FOR INTERNET CONNECTION EITHER WIRELESS OR WITH AARP ROUTER

• UTILIZE SHARED OR NETWORK PRINTING• CHECK AVAILABILITY OF SITE EQUIPMENT FOR

TAX PREPARATION• ARRANGE FOR SITE VISITS FROM TECH

COORDINATOR• HOT SPOT DETERMINATIONS

4. ORDERING SOFTWARE

• UPDATE OR CONFIRM LAST YEAR ORDER• CONSOLIDATING SITES• FIRST ORDER WILL BE SENT 15 OCTOBER• ORDERS MAY BE PROCESSED ANY TIME IF

DELAY IS REQUIRED TO ESTABLISH TWO SITE• MA STATE TEMPLATES WILL BE PROVIDED IN

JANUARY. NATIONAL AARP TEMPLATES (2013) ARE AVAILABLE FOR TRAINING

Training Goals for 20141) Standardized Curriculum

2) Simplified Training Materials

3) Reduced Classroom Lecture Time

4) Increased Home Study

5) Instructor Workshops

Mass Tax-Aide – Spring 2014

6) TWO “Immersion” Methodology7) Note: Our Peter Viles is on National Training

Committee

Standardized Curriculum• Set at National Level− Revised at State Level

• Consistent Within District

Simplified Training Materials•Core vs Comprehensive•Possible NTTC Determination−No revision of 4491

Mass Tax-Aide Spring 2014

Reduced Classroom Lecture Time

• Less Emphasis on Slides

• More Use of TWO

Increased Home Study•Supervised Practice Returns•Veteran Mentors

Mass Tax-Aide – Spring 2014

Instructor Workshops

• September / October• Tax-Aide / TWO / ERO

TWO “Immersion” Methodology

• 3 (or More) Districts• 2 (or More) Instructors / District

Mass Tax-Aide – Spring 2014

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

1.DeskTop EFIN’s: After being ahead of most of the country in converting to TWO, we’ve stuck at around 90% with 9 desktop EFIN’s. Discussion please!2.Tax-Aide Service for homebound—a needed service, but in-efficient use of our Counselors3.DOR Items

1. Change to Legacy relationship with IRS; we would have been better informed if we had been on DOR Vendor E-mail List.

2. DOR end-of-season delay – solely related to DOR on-line tax prep software

3. DOR still questioning and asking for back-up on some CB and 1099-R returns as part of their anti-fraud efforts.