VITA Volunteer/Administrator

I have done this is my 4^th year of doing this.  I have created a new account and password and still can not get in even though the account and access was created successfully.  I need to certify!  Why can I not get in with what was just created?

 

Sylvie Vatinelle

Community Services Manager

California Human Development

3315 Airway Dr.

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

sylvie.vatinelle@chdcorp.org
Direct Line:  707-521-4720

Phone: 707-523-1155 
Fax: 707-523-3776

Celebrating 40 years of creating opportunities for farmworkers

 

Mike has problem with Link & Learn PasswordFwd: Link & Learn Password

The followig message was sent to the webmaster by Mike xxxxxx.:

I am a returning tax volunteer and have been having a problem with my
password. It worked on Jan. 3, 2010 but did not work the next time I tried
to log in. I then requested another password (several times actually) and
have not received another password. It has been approximately 24 hours since
my last attempt.
Could you assist me with this matter? My username is xxxxxxxx.

Mike xxxxxx

Mary needs information on starting a free income tax preparation...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Joseph is finding it difficult to contact SPEC

To whom it may concern,

My name is Joseph xxxxx and I am currently a Junior at Yeshiva University in New York. I am an accounting major with experience in the accounting field, specifically tax returns. I am very interested in getting involved in VITA and becoming a volunteer but I am not exactly sure how to do so. I tried filling out the online form several times but I was never contacted.

Also, I am the president of the college's accounting society and I am very interested in planning either and event or a program with you. There are many students who would definitely be interested in getting involved and I was wondering if you could use any of there help. This could be a one day program to help you guys out in anything you need, or a long term program to become VITA volunteers.

Please get back to me as soon as you have a chance because I am extremely interested in getting involved.

Thank you.

All the best,

Joseph xxxxxx

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Answer from webmaster@vita-volunteers.org

Dear Joseph,

It is refreshing to see an enthusiastic volunteer willing to set up a VITA site, and following up when you are not getting a response.

According to the email and registration records, you made enquiries on 3/29/2009, 4/19/2009 and 4/23/2009 which was forwarded to VITA headquarters. Usually the vita-volunteers.org webmaster ignores such requests, leaving it to the national office to respond, but your determination to volunteer and your leadership qualities in wanting to start a new site is my personal opinion a good reason to respond publicly so that others with this question may also respond.

Vita-volunteers.org is run by a dedicated volunteer and site coordinator in the Santa Clara County, Ca which is close to San Francisco, and the purpose is to help volunteers in the local area sign up to volunteer. It was developed in conjunction with an enlightened Relationship manager who saw the value of getting online signups that could be directed by email immediately, since trying to find out how to volunteer was such a challenge.

However, soon many volunteers were signing up through the site, and the information directed to the Santa Clara County Relationship manager was not something that could be dealt with at the local level. Since the webmaster was a problem solver interested in helping out volunteers rather than deal with the bureaucracy, the practical solution was to direct those queries were directed to the VITA national office from which it was routed to the appropriate Territory Manager for action. It seemed a little silly to route it that way manually when the location of the volunteer was known, but contacting the National VITA office for the names of sites, site coordinators, Relationship managers and Territory resulted in the response that any queries should be directed to the National office.

A simple search on the web provided contact information on Territory Managers; since this information is supposed to be only for potential volunteers and coordinators who want to offer their services, but not to provide to individual taxpayers, I have extracted the names of the territory managers in New York State and presened them here for your reference in case you would like to contact them directly. If you are interested in the Territory Manager of a different state, please indicate by adding a comment to this posting. The contacts are as follows:

Albany Peter Stevens 518-427-4109 Peter.J.Stevens@irs.gov

Buffalo Peter Stevens 518-427-4109 Peter.J.Stevens@irs.gov

New York City Michael McCormick 212-436-1031 Michael.J.McCormick@irs.gov

The date of this information is not known, but there is also a listing of IRS offices in New York City which could be obtained through searching on the VITA Volunteers Custom Search Engine II on the website. As of April 17, 2009, here is the listing information.

City	Street Address	Days/Hours of Service	Telephone*
Albany	Clinton Ave. & N. Pearl St. Albany, NY 12207	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(518) 427-4250
Binghamton	49 Court St. Binghamton, NY 13901	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(607) 721-0338
Bronx	1200 Waters Place Bronx, NY 10461	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(212) 436-1000
Brooklyn	625 Fulton St. Brooklyn, NY 11201	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(718) 488-2068
Buffalo	130 South Elmwood Ave. Buffalo, NY 14202	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(716) 961-5100
Elmira	149 West Gray St. Elmira, NY 14901	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(607) 767-1012
Garden City	107 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. Garden City, NY 11530	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(516) 683-5169
Hauppauge	1180 Veterans Memorial Hwy. Hauppauge, NY 11788	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(631) 851-4726
Jamestown	E. 3rd St. & Prendergast Ave., Jamestown, NY 14701	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon) Services Provided	(716) 961-5100
Kingston	153 Sawkill Rd. Kingston, NY 12401	Monday - Thursday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(845) 339-5384
New Windsor	300 Commerce Dr. New Windsor, NY 12553	Monday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(845) 561-8990
New York (Harlem)	55 W. 125th St. New York, NY 10027	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(212) 436-1000
New York (Downtown)	290 Broadway New York, NY 10007	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(212) 436-1000
New York (Midtown)	110 W. 44th St. New York, NY 10036	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(212) 436-1000
Poughkeepsie	191 Main St. Poughkeepsie, NY 12601	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch on Mondays 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(845) 452-2220
Queensbury	375 Bay Rd. Queensbury, NY 12804	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(518) 798-6047
Rego Park	59-17 Junction Blvd., Rego Park, NY 11368	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(718) 760-6019
Riverhead	518 E. Main St. Riverhead, NY 11901	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(631) 851-4726
Rochester	255 E. Ave. Rochester, NY 14604	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(585) 263-5840
Staten Island	10 Richmond Ter. Staten Island, NY 10301	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(212) 436-1000
Syracuse	100 S. Clinton St. Syracuse, NY 13261	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(315) 448-0807
Utica	10 Broad St. Utica, NY 13501	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Closed for lunch 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Services Provided	(315) 793-1952
West Nyack	242 W. Nyack Rd. West Nyack, NY 10994	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(845) 627-1487
White Plains	210 E. Post Rd. White Plains, NY 10601	Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Services Provided	(914) 684-7302

The source url is http://www.irs.gov/localcontacts/article/0,,id=98318,00.html

It is not clear where in the process of sending out emails there was a breakdown in communication, so the practical action to take is to call the appropriate offices to get the appropriate information. Please get back to the blog to document your results, even if there is no action, so I can try to find who else can provide the information.

If you would like to add your experiences to this blog, it may help other interested volunteers reduce the amount of frustration they feel at not being able to volunteer.

The information contained here was obtained through publicly available sources that came up through a search engine which has not been verified. The accuracy can and should be verified with the IRS, but it is provided as a starting point.

Best wishes,

Webmaster@Vita-volunteers.org

How to find my login and password for VITA Certification site

Mary sent the following email to webmaster at vita-volunteers.org:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,

I hope you can help me. I took the VITA Certification tests, just completed the Intermediate level 2 nights ago and scored a 95. I did not get to print my certificate that night. I logged on tonite but forgot my password. I asked for a new password to be sent to me but I cannot locate it. It is possible that I had keyed in my e-mail address incorrectly when I signed up.

My name is Mary xxxxx xxxxxx(I may have set up my account as xxxxx xxxxx). My user ID is "xxxxxxx" and I thought my password was "xxxxx" but that did not work. Here are my e-mail addresses:

xxxxxxx1@aol.com
xxxxxxx2@aol.com
xxxxxxx3@aol.com
xxxxxxx4@aol.com
xxxxxxx5@gmail.com

I did not get the new password I requested on any of these e-mail addresses. Please help me locate my certificate as I am volunteering at a mobile VITA location this coming Monday.

Sincerely,

Mary xxxxx xxxxxx
Winston-Salem, NC
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Answer:

Mary, sorry to hear you are having troubles. I can sense the frustration you are having, but unfortunately the link and learn site is not under the control of the vita-volunteers.org webmaster. It appears to be under the control of an entity at webtechteam.com whose only email address I have is nobody (at) webtechteam.com which is a send only address and as the messages say, will not read any emails sent to it. Vita-volunteers.org was put up because the webmaster was having the kinds of difficulties you and others are having when trying to volunteer!

Here are some ways to solve the problem:
a) find your local IRS office and contact the SPEC Relationship manager or the Territory manager and ask for help
b) call the IRS Toll-Free, Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follow Pacific Time)
c) if you need help in locating the local IRS office, you may be able to get help from the search engine at http://www.vita-volunteers.org/custom_search_engine_ii.htm
d) a final option is to fill in the registration form at http://www.vita-volunteers.org/2009_Online/2009_OnlineReg_nonSCC.htm as best as you can, and put your problem in the comment section. That information will get e-mailed to VITA headquarters and then forwarded to the appropriate Territory Manager.

Hope this helps! If there are any further questions, or if you find the answer, please add it to the comments at the end of the post. You do not need to provide an email address to post if you do not wish to do so.

Comments on Basic Level Certification for VITA Volunteers

There were at least 2 questions on the test for certification level that I feel reflects the distance in thinking of the people setting the exams from what is happening in the field.

The first has to do with the question about what to do if a taxpayer is unable to have sufficient funds in the checking account to pay the outstanding taxes. The correct answers include putting the charge on a credit card, setting up an installment payment, or suggesting paying through the savings account. In my judgement, the most helpful answer is the second one (setting up an installment payment) followed by advising the taxpayer to increase the withholding for the current year or sending in estimated payments as they receive the money. The first and third suggests a lack of sensitivity - credit card payments including not only a convenience fee, but also transaction fees and high interest rate, and if the taxpayer had a savings account with money, they probably would know better than to suggest this in the first place.

The second has to do with the form number required for splitting the refund into multiple accounts at financial institutions. As a site coordinator, I have found that to get in the information about financial institutions correctly for one account is very time consuming to get right, so doing it for 3 would be even more time consuming and prone to error, and require even more quality review time. While it may be convenient for the taxpyer to have it deposited in multiple accounts directly, how difficult would it be for the taxpayer to transfer from the original refund from one account into multiple accounts. I consider this form as nice to have, but not essential, and do not go out of my way to encourage its use, but while remembering the number of the form accurately may be a competency required of revenue officers, it does seem to have less value than some other training that would be of greater help to the taxpayers we are serving.

These are one person's opinion, and represents one perspective. No doubt you may disagree, and your views are welcome as comments to this post.

Will you do my 2009 Tax Return?

Question received by email:

I am 21 years old, full time student, part time work. Will you do my 2009 Tax Return? I live in Nassau County, New York.

Bxxxxxxx

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Answer: I will personally do your tax return if you will travel to my site in California! I imagine you are talking about your tax return for 2008 due on April 15, 2009. (We won't be doing 2009 returns until approximately a year from now.) Failing that, there may be VITA sites close to where you live where they could do your taxes, unless you make too much money or your return is complicated. One way to find the locations is to search in the VITA Volunteers Search Engine II at the top left hand corner below the banner of this page. If there are no suitable locations, the results page will provide more hints on where to find their locations.