Welcome to our PEACE, Inc. Free Tax Prep training page.

Thank you for your interest in volunteering. Even though our formal training has ended, we still would love to have you volunteer with us. It is never too late.

Below are the certifications for volunteering with our Free Tax Prep. Start with the Ethics/Intake section and watch the video link for the Zoom recording.

At any time, if you need clarification on the next steps or would like to come in for a meeting, please contact us by email at sthompson@peace-caa.org or call 315.885.5085. We are located at 1201 E Fayette Street, Syracuse, NY 13210. Our hours of operation are Tuesdays & Saturdays, 9 am-5 pm, and Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12-7 pm.

Certification Resources:

• • IRS 6744 VITA Volunteer Test Booklet – Booklet for test taking before entering the testing site.
  • IRS 4012 Volunteer Resource Guide – Booklet to find the answers for the testing.
  • Practice Lab website for Basic and Advanced labs (enter password TRAINPROWEB).
  • Link and Learn website for taking your certifications.

Ethics/Intake

• • Volunteer Standards of Conduct – All volunteers, including volunteers who do not prepare returns.
  • Intake/Interview and Quality Review – All tax law certified volunteers, including Intake Personal.
  • Some fundamental tax law – for the Intake Personal.
  • Intake folders – an overview of forms that each client must fill out.

Materials

• • Ethics/Intake. Slides from the presentation.
  • Video link from Zoom recording (Passcode: Y&0gB%M^ )

Basic Tax Certification (suggested level for new tax preparers)

• Basic Tax Return Certification
  • Prerequisite – Volunteer Standards of Conduct, Intake/Interview, and Quality Review Certification.

Materials

• • Testing pages from IRS 6774 needed all the way to Basic Tax Returns
  • Pages include:
    • Volunteer Standards of Conduct.
    • Intake/Interview and Quality Review.
    • Basic Tax.
  • Slides from Presentation.
  • Practice exercise

Video link from Zoom recording (Passcode: Y&0gB%M^)

 Advance Tax Certification

Advance Tax Return Certification

• • Prerequisite – Volunteer Standards of Conduct, Intake/Interview, and Quality Review Certification.

* Due to the number of changes this year, we are requiring volunteers to also complete the basic certification.

Materials

• • Testing pages from IRS 6774 needed all the way to Advance Tax Returns
  • Pages include:
    • Volunteer Standards of Conduct.
    • Intake/Interview and Quality Review.
    • Basic Tax.
    • Advance Tax.
  • 2026 Tax Training Advanced Slides from Presentation
  • Advanced Practice Lab

If you have questions or need more information, please call Sharon at 315-634-3756 or email taxes@peace-caa.org. We’ll be happy to talk with you!

PEACE, Inc. is a VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) site and a member of the CNY CA$H Coalition. VITA sites provide free tax preparation by tax-law-certified volunteers to anyone with a household income of less than $69,000 per year.