Are you able to lend a hand with our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) free tax preparation site? What better way to help your neighbors keep more of their tax refund.
Why we are in this space
We noticed a decline in the number of free tax preparation sites, particularly in the Bremerton area where this service is needed the most. We also noticed other free tax preparation sites have extremely limited hours that do not accommodate schedules for people who work.
Impact last year
In 2024, we operated a site at one location (Kitsap Community Resources) for one evening per week. Over the tax season, we completed 60 tax returns serving low-to-moderate income households including seniors, active duty military, and even a couple of small business owners filing for the first time.
Goals for 2025
This year we would like to be able to expand our tax operations to include multiple days per week and multiple locations in Bremerton. We are hoping to grow the program to include tax sites at the Kitsap Regional Library Sylvan Way branch, Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center (KIAC), Bremerton Housing Authority, and Olympic College. In order to achieve this goal, we need more volunteers to help.
Volunteer Roles
Tax experience is helpful but not required. We will provide training and you’ll also take online modules to become a certified IRS tax volunteer. There are also non-tax volunteer roles as well.
Intake Volunteer
The Greeter position welcomes clients who arrive at the tax site, verifies the client has the necessary documents, answers questions related to intake paperwork, ensures the return is in scope, and confirms the form is complete before assigning the return to a certified tax preparer.
Volunteer Tax Preparer
The Tax Preparer position interviews clients based on the intake paperwork and completes each tax return using tax law knowledge and input into the software.
Volunteer Quality Reviewer
Every tax return is reviewed for accuracy by a second person. The Quality Reviewer position reviews completed tax returns and interviews the client to make sure everything is correct. This position closes out the tax return with the client.
How to get involved & next steps
Please complete the form below if you wish to volunteer. For any questions about the process, please contact Phillip Godinez at via email at pgodinez@kcr.org or by calling (360) 478-2301.
We will schedule you for volunteer Standards of Conduct training in December 2024 and complete a background check. Additional training on tax preparation will be conducted in January 2025 supplemented by online training/testing which is self-paced and must be completed by January 15, 2025.
What’s the time commitment?
Our tax sites operate from February 1st through April 15th. If you are only able to work some weeks but not others, that’s okay we can still use your help.
Thanks to our partner organizations
Thank you to our partner organizations for providing space, equipment, supplies, and volunteers to support our tax site operations.
