All VITA and TCE volunteers must be certified each year.  Anyone who is helping to prepare returns, input returns, or do quality reviews of tax returns must have this certification.  There are several levels of certification: basic, intermediate, advanced, military, and international.  At a minimum, each volunteer needs to complete and pass the basic training.  This training is available online through the Link and Learn Taxes for the 2008 tax year.

Tax training helps volunteers to understand and apply relevant tax law, properly screen and interview taxpayers, correctly use resources available, and conduct quality reviews to ensure accurate returns.  The certification tests are designed to test the volunteer’s grasp of these concepts.

The basic test contains 30 questions over 7 scenarios and 1 quality review.  Volunteers must correctly answer 24 of these questions to pass.  Along with completing the online test, volunteers will be able to print their Volunteer Agreement.  In order to go on to the higher certifications, this basic test must be completed successfully.