Tax Help: Volunteer to Provide Tax Assistance in Your Community

Often it is the elderly and people with low income that need help the most with filing their income tax returns. These are the very people who can least afford the tax advice and services of accountants.

My community, and many others around the country, train and organize volunteers to provide the needed income tax return assistance. I have been looking for a way to become more involved in community service, so I decided to volunteer and went down to give it a try.

The program is called Tax Help New Mexico. It is administered by a local nonprofit group and funded by Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) and Public Service Company of New Mexico.

Before starting, I needed to be trained and take a test. TVI developed the computer based training package that took me about 8 hours to complete. The test involved answering some questions about tax laws and completing some sample income tax returns. The training was not too difficult but it was not easy either.

Although I am volunteering because I want to, it is a real perk to get the training. I recently incorporated my consulting business, so I need to understand the Income Tax System as well as possible.

If you need to learn more about the Income Tax system, this is a great way to get some training and help out your neighborhood too.