Date: September 23, 2026

Topic: Quality review — reviewer tools and support, and the taxpayer’s experience of return review

Session Overview

• Open-floor “what’s on your mind” discussion, followed by the planned topic: the taxpayer’s experience of return review and the tools reviewers use beyond IRS-provided materials.
• Notes are generated with AI assistance and anonymized before publishing — participant names and identifying program details are left out. Products and public resources mentioned by name are kept in for reference.

What’s on Your Mind

• Grants: A participant asked whether anyone had news of the VITA-support grant from Wells Fargo, separate from the Citi Foundation child savings support grants that Prosperity Now had just announced. Another participant noted the Wells Fargo announcement is not due until September 29th; the facilitator agreed announcements are getting close.
• Certifying Acceptance Agents (CAA): The facilitator was asked for suggestions for people pursuing CAA status. A participant noted the IRS is no longer offering forensic document training; the outside provider their program used cost roughly $150. The facilitator encouraged everyone to consider becoming a CAA — assisting with the ITIN application is a major benefit to taxpayers who need it, and many paid preparers charge quite a bit for it. Taxpayers may also struggle to use Taxpayer Assistance Center offices, which can involve ID requirements to enter the building and offices located in buildings that also house immigration enforcement. Taxpayers trust their VITA preparers, and being able to get this help from them is a comfort.
• Proposed IRS regulation: The facilitator flagged new regulations published in the Federal Register that change requirements for immigrant taxpayers claiming credits — only the refundable portion of a credit would be affected, and eligibility would no longer rest on a work-eligible Social Security card. Their concern is less the taxpayers who lose eligibility than the many who remain eligible but must now sort out how public-charge and public-benefit rules apply, leaving preparers unsure how much to rely on a taxpayer’s own assurances under due diligence. The facilitator views this as poor tax administration, noted the IRS lacks a strong enforcement mechanism (so honest, confused taxpayers are likelier to lose credits than those who would cheat anyway), and said the effort would be better spent on unscrupulous preparers and identity theft.
• Commenting: Anyone can comment to the Federal Register; comments are due October 5th and can be short (for example, a VITA preparer’s view that they joined to keep people tax compliant, not to determine immigration status). A participant noted long comments may intimidate some volunteers. The facilitator will share their own comments with the listserv and likely post them on VITAQuality.org, and others are free to reuse any of it. The facilitator also noted that VITA volunteers are not currently subject to the paid-preparer EITC due diligence requirements, including the associated form.

Tools Reviewers Use Beyond IRS Materials

• One program developed a quality review desk guide, rolled out last year, aimed at newer reviewers. Long-time volunteers and managers considered it a waste of time, so the program clarified it is not written for them and does slow things down, but believes it has helped get new reviewers up to speed. The same program also borrowed another program’s self-employment worksheet.
• The facilitator observed that VITA programs freely borrow and iterate on each other’s materials — sometimes finding a heavily improved version of something they wrote years ago — which is a key reason for keeping this community going. Checklists remain useful even for experienced reviewers, particularly at the start of the season.
• A quality review training video series created some years ago (role-play style, originally built for an online training and later posted to YouTube by Prosperity Now) may still be available; the facilitator will try to track it down, while noting it is dated.
• Tax Roundtable was named as a strong resource for complex questions. In a large metro program with highly credentialed volunteers, the facilitator noted the trade-off that experts unfamiliar with low-income returns can find them a new experience.

How Reviewers Get Questions Answered

• The facilitator described larger sites with a group of reviewers plus a lead reviewer, sometimes on-site and sometimes reachable by phone. Historically, hard questions were pulled in to experienced preparers while the return was put on hold, and questions from remote sites came by phone or email chain.
• One program tried a person dedicated solely to quality review this past season to keep clients moving in and out on time. That person may be an experienced preparer or the site coordinator, rotating between preparers as needed. The program uses both peer review and designated reviewers depending on site size and appointment slots. Another participant’s site coordinators are all experienced past preparers, so peer review is less of a concern.
• The facilitator prefers designated reviewers because reviewers improve with repetition, but has not seen strong evidence that designated review beats peer review; many reviewers also want to prepare returns, and review must not become a bottleneck, since bottlenecks lead volunteers to work around the process.
• Ideas for connecting people: a program wiki, a group chat or Slack-type channel for site coordinators (the facilitator noted having tried Slack too early and being against it at first), and other ways to reach experienced volunteers when a site is out of sight and has a question.

The Taxpayer’s Experience of Review

• Participants reported that taxpayers are generally very happy that two people look at every return, especially when a reviewer catches something a preparer missed. One participant noted some returning clients ask not to work with a new preparer; they reassure clients that preparers are trained and certified and that help is nearby. This participant has not seen clients upset over a change during review in five years.
• The facilitator said clients often glaze over during the process, that setting expectations about what happens and why is the main lever, and that VITA accuracy on EITC returns is far better than other preparers’ because of its focus on getting it right and its 100% quality review. Taxpayers themselves are important to review: most mistakes the facilitator has caught surfaced when a taxpayer answered a question differently than the preparer had recorded (for example, a full-time student living in the home who was missing from the intake sheet).
• Refund display: The facilitator asked whether the running refund amount can be hidden in TaxSlayer; a participant was unsure how. One program seats clients across the table from the screen and withholds the refund number until quality review is complete, so clients aren’t disappointed if it changes. The facilitator dislikes watching taxpayers swing between excited and discouraged as the return is built, but likes clients seeing the screen to catch misspelled names.

Looking Ahead

• Next session: volunteer management software. Two people are already scheduled to share their experiences, and a third presenter is welcome — Volunteer Hub, Volgistics, and Salesforce were named as common products. A key question is how large or complex a program must be to justify switching from a spreadsheet, since these systems take more technical skill to operate.
• The facilitator thanked everyone for the strong turnout and will follow up with a participant about volunteer management software contacts.

The Society for Free Tax Assistance  •  VITAquality.org  •  a project of JC Craig Consulting