This post originally appeared in partnership with Bham Now.

United Way of Central Alabama (UWCA) is seeking volunteers for its highly regarded tax preparation program.

A free service, United Way’s Free Tax Preparation program needs a steady influx of volunteers to meet our community’s needs.

Recently, we sat down with UWCA’s Judy Allen, Director of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Doug Horst, the Director of Financial Stability Services to discuss why helping people with their taxes matters and how local Central Alabama residents can make a difference by becoming a Tax-Prep volunteer.

Read on to learn how you can join the program.

United Way Serving thousands

“We’ve been providing this service for 15 years. Over the course of that time, we have thousands of customers who have used the Free Tax-Prep service and established trust in us as a free, reliable place that they can turn to get their taxes done accurately.”

Judy Allen, Director of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance

Before the COVID-19 pandemic the program served nearly 3600 local residents bringing more than $2 million in tax refunds back to our community each year.  Throughout the pandemic, United Way has continued providing this service, while keeping volunteers and customers safe.

Now, more than ever the Free Tax-Prep service is needed.

“As a result of COVID, there are more people than ever, who want help with their taxes because there have been tax law changes. There are new benefits such as the expanded child tax credit,and expanded dependent care credit that helps with daycare costs. Even people who do their own taxes are looking for more guidance and help.”

Allen

All Volunteers Welcomed

Are you ready to volunteer?

Let’s shatter one myth about volunteering for UWCA Tax Prep from the get-go. You do NOT need to have professional experience in accounting or finance to help. The United Way welcomes volunteers from all backgrounds who are willing to provide valuable tax assistance to our community. 

Bottomline: If you are willing to go through the necessary training, you can volunteer.

The Process

How do you get trained as a Tax-Prep volunteer?

“Basically the first step is to register, let us know you are interested. Then we’ll send you an invitation. You have a choice of several different days that you can participate in training. The class is a day long. It’s interactive. It’s also recorded if you want to go back and review it after the class. We’ll have it virtually or you can come and do the training in our workspace. It all depends on what that person’s preferences are.”

Allen

Doug Horst provided a step by step guide on how to become a Certified IRS Income Tax Preparer:

• Let United Way know you are interested: Sign up at  www.uwca.org/taxvol 
• The  program will  send you an invitation to register for training
• Pick from a variety of training options to fit your schedule and preferred style.
• Attend one-day training online or in-person covering IRS open book certification: multiple dates offered in November and December
• Complete IRS open book certification test
• Provide your certification and volunteer forms to UWCA who completes background check
• Sign up for your volunteer schedule beginning in January.  You are ready to start!

Safe Workplace – Options

Along with making it easy to get trained, the program has also instituted a number of safeguards to ensure the Tax-Prep volunteers and customers are safe from COVID-19.

“We are structuring our workspaces, where they’re all partitioned and socially distant, so that they can be a very safe environment for people to volunteer. We’re offering our customers options. They can send us their tax information through a secure website by taking pictures with their phone, or make an appointment and drop-off their documents in person.”

Allen

The organization adheres to very strict IRS information security and confidentiality to protect your information.

Save People Money – Rewarding

Volunteering for the Free Tax -Prep program is instantly rewarding because every return that you prepare is saving our neighbors a minimum of $200, in preparation fees.

“It’s huge! It is a fairly big training commitment compared to some other walk up volunteer opportunities, but it’s a huge payoff, in terms of the impact it has on the community.”

Doug Horst, Director of Financial Stability Services

Volunteer Today

Tax-PrepTraining begins soon, so now is the time to sign up to get your invitation to training. If you have questions, contact us at taxvol@uwca.org. 

Make a difference. Join— volunteer with the Free Tax-Preparation Program today.