IRS looking for local volunteers for its tax filing assistance program

photo Rachael Pickett, a volunteer with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, goes over tax information with Cleveland resident Jack Caldwell in this file photograph from 2010.

IF YOU GO• What: IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistant program volunteer registration• When: Now through December; first training session begins in October• Contact: Keesha Marshall, Urban League of Chattanooga, at 423-756-1762 or kmarshall@utchatt.net or Beverley Lindsey, Cleveland city manager's office, at 423-472-4551 or blindsey@clevelandtn.gov

There are a lot of people who can't afford to have their taxes done professionally.

And many who don't have access to the Internet and free tax preparation websites. Or the know-how to use them anyway.

For those people -- the poor, the elderly and sometimes both -- tax time can turn into one more thing on the plate: another stress, expense and obligation.

So people like Steve Combs step up to help them.

"The pay is going home at the end of the day knowing you helped someone," he said.

The retired Combs will give his time to the IRS' Volunteer Income Tax Assistance [VITA] program for the third year in a row come tax season.

The VITA program is IRS-backed and seeks to help low-income, elderly, disabled and limited-English speaking people file their tax returns. The program helps individuals who make less than $52,000 file a simple tax return.

Combs last year supervised the Eastgate VITA station, which helped around 1,500 taxpayers with their tax filings. The station was open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during the tax season.

And "we were busy everyday," he said.

The branch had around seven volunteers -- who, per volunteer, filed about two returns an hour -- but could have used about five more.

The Chattanooga area on the whole had 142 VITA volunteers last year, including 90 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga accounting students who helped out.

To adequately staff all its 14 locations this coming season, the VITA program needs 150 volunteers, said Joseph Kotsis, senior tax consultant with the IRS.

Kotsis is responsible for overseeing the VITA program in the greater-Chattanooga area, including Cleveland and Athens. He rounds up volunteers about this time every year and prepares IRS-certified training for the volunteers who come out.

"We beat the bushes and get everybody we can to volunteer," he said.

And for the ones who do volunteer, Kotsis goes through a four-day training session, working through the ins-and-outs of tax code and what-ifs.

"They don't have to know everything," he said.

In fact, the idea is not to have volunteers who necessarily know the tax code by heart. It's to have volunteers who know the gist of things and where to find answers if they come across a bump.

Even the final certification test is open-book. Volunteers can take it home and have a week or two to get it done.

Training sessions begin next month. And training sessions will be held in November and again in December.

Then in January, the VITA volunteers go to the show, where "you just meet life head on," said Kotsis.

Volunteers are asked to work four-hour shifts at their designated help stations, located around the area. Some volunteers, like Combs, work longer hours.

He stays around longer because "it's something I like to do," he said.

Plus, "it's really a good program for the public."

Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.

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