Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Grant Program

Posted by on May 23, 2011

IRS VITA Grant Program

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Grant Program is an IRS initiative designed to promote and support free tax preparation service for the underserved, low income populations. These include the elderly, disabled, non-urban, native American and those taxpayers having limited English proficiency.

In 2011, IRS awarded matching grants to 179 organizations that offered free tax preparation services during the 2011 tax filing season at locations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Congress appropriated $12 million in funding to support the VITA Program.

This year the IRS will be accepting applications for the VITA Grant Program that will allow some organizations to apply for annual funding for up to three years. The application period opens May 23, 2011 and closes June 30, 2011.

This Grant Program is intended to provide direct funds to organizations to:

Enable VITA Programs to extend services to underserved populations in hardest-to-reach areas, both urban and non-urban;
Increase the capacity to file returns electronically;
Heighten quality control;
Enhance volunteer training; and
Significantly improve the accuracy rate of returns prepared at volunteer sites.

Please refer to IRS Publication 4671, VITA Grant 2012 Program Overview and Application Package for more information. Contact the VITA Grant Program at Grant.Program.Office@irs.gov.

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=184243,00.html