Certification and Volunteer Agreement
All volunteers must agree to the Volunteer Standards of Conduct by signing Form 13615, Volunteer Agreement. Volunteers, who answer tax law questions, instruct tax law, prepare or correct tax returns and/or conduct Quality Reviews of completed tax returns must be certified.
Volunteer Certification
Volunteers, who answer tax law questions, instruct tax law, prepare or correct tax returns and/or conduct Quality Reviews of completed tax returns must be certify by passing one or more IRS tests annually. IRS SPEC provides training courses to prepare volunteers for the tests.
The testing and certification process is used to measure a volunteer's understanding of tax law and its application to the return preparation process. A volunteer must pass each test with a score of 80% or higher to be certified. Volunteers must complete their annual certification requirements before engaging in tax law related activities at the site.
Certified Volunteer roles include:
- Tax Preparer
- Quality Reviewer
- Screener
- Instructor
- Electronic Return Originator or Transmitter (if responsible for resolving e-file rejects)
Levels of Certification
Volunteers are limited to preparing tax returns with tax law issues within the scope of their certification level. Following is a summary of issues that can be addressed by each of the five levels:
- Basic: wages, unemployment compensation and simple investment income (e.g. interest and ordinary dividends); Standard Deduction only; several credits for low to moderate income taxpayers.
- Intermediate: Basic level plus simple pensions, self-employment income (Schedule C-EZ only); Standard or Itemized Deductions.
- Advanced: Basic and Intermediate level plus more complex pensions, capital gains/losses, sale of a home.
- Military: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced plus residential rental income, moving expense, and other common issues that affect members of the military.