The Salida Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program has been operating in Salida for more than 25 years under 2 different site coordinators. The VITA program is meant to assist, prepare and file income tax returns (federal and Colorado) for the elderly and low income individuals in and around the Salida area.
The program is in need of a new site coordinator for the 2026 tax season starting Feb. 1, 2027. The VITA program is sponsored and monitored by the IRS. If a site coordinator is located, the person will register with the IRS, take mandatory tests for qualification (the tests are not overly difficult), and be provided with IRS tax software to prepare and efile income tax returns. Additional volunteers will be needed to help prepare and review the returns prior to filing. Training is provided by the IRS via online programs and the retired Site Coordinator can also train. The IRS also provides intake sheets for interviewing clients, envelopes to hold taxpayer data and printed tax returns, and in the past a laser printer with ink cartridges to print the returns. T
he Colorado Community Action Board has sponsored the Salida VITA site for 10 years, providing us with laptops for the volunteers to use to prepare the returns and also reams of paper for the printer. The candidate should have some tax background and be familiar with accounting. Familiarity with Tax software, such as TurboTax, TaxCut or others is also helpful. Depending on background, VITA clients accepted can be limited in scope to match the skills of the candidate.
This position also requires some computer skills, which can be helped by the software vendor’s technical staff. Hours are flexible and should run most of the tax season from Feb. 1 to April 15. In other locations, the accounting staff of a business have volunteered Friday mornings to prepare the returns, other days of the week can also be chosen, esp. Saturdays.
If interested, please contact Randy at VITASalida@gmail.com or 719-539-5305.
