VITA is Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. You do all this training, and voila, you are certified to help people who meet certain criteria file their tax returns.

I planned to finish this training today, but I am only on slide 104 of 159. “But Kel!” you say, “That sounds like you’re nearly done!”

Ah yes, nearly done with the third topic. Of approximately a million topics. Or maybe more like 50. But still, not even close.

I would just take the test, and see if I pass, but I keep failing the mini-quizzes that come immediately after the topic I’m quizzed on. Nevertheless, I’m confident I can fill those taxes out correctly!

Update: I went ahead and just took the test and used IRS.gov to help me along. I magically passed! First try! I thought for sure I would fail because you have to calculate exact numbers for some, but it seems like I actually got those ones right, and got the parts I studied wrong. Go figure!

I participated in this program last year, and none of these topics came up. Although I am doing the “basic” certification, the issues are far more complex than any I was faced with last year. For example, they are teaching us about who gets to claim someone as a dependent if like 5 people all contributed to that person’s support during the year.

Last year my partner and I got all of the dependent children, so that was a snap. Oh, and a sweet old man who had only military income, and no dependents or anything. Dependents make taxes complicated!

I will be doing the VITA day next Saturday, so I’ll be sure to post about it!