TIGTA Report on VITA and Other Volunteer Tax Programs
As you may have heard, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released their annual audit of the VITA program today. There is the potential for negative publicity due to the report’s criticisms and we want you to be prepared.
Dan Fair serves as NCTC's Manager for Communications & Member Relations
Hopefully you saw a story celebrating our field’s quality last month in Tax Analysts. This story highlights another quality increase for VITA this year, according to a recent IRS quality report. This contrasts heavily with the TIGTA audit, the purpose of which is to review the IRS’ volunteer tax preparation programs and make recommendations to improve its quality.
While the TIGTA audit certainly has some flaws, it must be acknowledged that some incidents occurred this past tax season. These incidents, however, were very limited and do not represent the entire field of 75,000 volunteers or more than 5,700 tax sites. NCTC is doing everything we can to make sure our side of the story is heard. You can see our statement regarding the TIGTA report here.
IRS has also released a fact sheet clarifying some points in the TIGTA report. You can see the fact sheet here.
