Publication 5683 VITA/TCE Handbook for Partners and Site Coordinators
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1025 Publ 5683 (PDF) · 2026-10-03 edition · updated 2026-10-04 · United States
MESSAGE FROM THE SPEC DIRECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SPEC MISSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
PURPOSE OF THIS HANDBOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 1: VITA/TCE Program Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
CHAPTER 1-1: Partner and Coordinator Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CHAPTER 1-2: Timeline for Operating VITA/TCE Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
CHAPTER 1-3: Guidelines for Opening and Operating Your Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CHAPTER 1-4: Guidelines for Closing Your Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CHAPTER 2: VITA/TCE Site Material and Ordering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CHAPTER 2-1 Site Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CHAPTER 2-2 Product Ordering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
CHAPTER 3: Computer Loan Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
CHAPTER 4: Volunteer Recruitment, Training and Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 4-1: Volunteer Protection Act (VPA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 4-2: Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 4-3: Volunteer Recruitment Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
CHAPTER 4-4: Volunteer Recognition and Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
CHAPTER 4-5: Volunteer Training and Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER 5: Continuing Education (CE) Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
CHAPTER 6: Quality Site Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
QSR #1: Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
QSR #2: Intake/Interview and Quality Review Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
QSR #3: Confirming Photo Identification and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
QSR #4: Reference Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
QSR #5: Volunteer Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
QSR #6: Timely Filing of Tax Returns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
QSR #7: Civil Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
QSR #8: Correct Site Identification Number (SIDN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
QSR #9: Correct Electronic Filing Identification Number (EFIN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
QSR #10: Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 7: Volunteer Standards of Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
CHAPTER 8: VITA/TCE Program Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 8-1: Guidance for Potential Return Preparer Misconduct at VITA/TCE Sites . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 8-2: Solicitation of Donations Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Table of Contents 3
CHAPTER 8-3: Financial Institutions and RAC/RAL Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
CHAPTER 8-4: Privacy, Confidentiality, and Civil Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
CHAPTER 8-5: Policy for IRS Employees Who Volunteer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CHAPTER 9: Serving Taxpayers with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
CHAPTER 10: Tax Return Preparation, e-Services and TaxSlayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 10-1: VITA/TCE Virtual Return Preparation Models and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 10-2: e-Services and EFIN Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 10-3: TaxSlayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
CHAPTER 11: Types of Site Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
CHAPTER 12: Partner and Coordinator Program Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CHAPTER 12-1: Partner Resources and Web Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CHAPTER 12-2: Coordinator Resources and Web Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
CHAPTER 12-3: Additional Web Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
CHAPTER 12-4: Outreach Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
FORMS AND PUBLICATIONS LINKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
ACRONYM GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
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