April has arrived! The returns are really flying now, and we are hearing from a lot of community members hoping to get assistance before the deadline. Appointments are filling up quickly, but we are also directing many people to consider DIY or attending our Filing Finale on Monday 4/18.

A few notes for this week...

VITA Filing Finale 2022

We look forward to bringing back our in-person Filing Finale this year! This event is a one-day extravaganza that allows volunteers from all sites and corners to come together to finish off the season. We have received a lot of positive feedback about community partners and expect a steady stream of taxpayers that day. In addition to on-site tax preparation, we are also looking for volunteers to help with greeting, intake, DIY stations, and Spanish translation.

• If you are interested in joining for at least one 4 hour timeslot (options from 10am-10pm), please use this form to sign up by Friday 4/8: VITA Filing Finale Sign-Up Form
• This year's event will be in the Truly Nolen building at the Williams Center complex near Rosemont/Broadway. The specific address is 432 S. Williams Blvd, Building 436 Tucson, AZ 85711. Need directions? Directions to Truly Nolen Williams Center

Taxpayer Signatures

If a taxpayer is unable to sign their return electronically and needs to come in to the United Way offices, please let them know that they can come in on Wednesday or Friday between 9am-3pm. Also, please send an email to vita@unitedwaytucson.org so we can have their paperwork ready for them when they come in.

GetYourRefund Updates

Next week, we will start to wind down virtual tax prep. Here is a rough timeline of our 'Hub Finale' that GYR volunteers can use to know when different types of tickets will start to slow -

• Wednesday 4/6: UWTSA Hub closes to new tickets
• Monday 4/11: Aim to have all QR down on Hub tickets
• Thursday 4/15: Aim to have all returns signed and ready for transmitting

Note that prior year returns and amendments can still be worked on after April 18th. The Hub will remain open for taxpayers to access their documents and save a copy of their return through October. 

Valet Tickets

Note that tickets that come through our Valet service will not have pictures of the taxpayer's ID and SS cards uploaded. You will find this information recorded on the Valet Cover Sheet with the rest of their scanned documents. The identification verification happens with the Intake Specialist at the site, and the information on the Valet Cover Sheet should be considered verified. Please reach out to Robert if you have questions on a specific ticket.  

Logging Hours

The VITA program relies on funding from the IRS, which is directly related to the number of service hours provided by all VITA volunteers. 

Please make sure that you log ALL your volunteer hours either in the Volunteer Log available at all physical VITA sites or, for volunteers working remotely, using this link: https://forms.office.com/r/dg0XcRynNw

And don't forget - please be sure to track the hours you are working in the Hub.

*Note that we made a few tweaks to this form - volunteers now have the option of logging total hours over a date range in addition to tracking clocking in/out times on certain days. Please feel free to track your hours in the way that makes most sense for your situation on the form.