Tom Parette

After a couple years of retirement, I started looking for a volunteer program that I could participate in which would provide value, leverage my skills and lastly be interesting.  I had heard about income tax assistance over the years and reached out to the Rufty Holmes Senior Center in Rowan county about their program.  They  use the VITA (volunteer income tax assistance) program which is part of the IRS.  Having just finished up on 4/15/26 I wanted to give a perspective.  

First the training was impressive, we started in December and would meet in-person twice a week December and January.  The training program didn’t’ only cover the tax changes for the year but had scenarios where we would prepare the taxes.  There were multiple tests which had to be taken (and passed) to allow you to be a preparer.  

Starting in February, appointments were scheduled for taxpayers to get their taxes prepared.  Taxpayers would go through an intake process which was essentially an interview marking sure they had everything they needed.  Then a preparer would go through the process to prepare the taxes, another person would QR the return to make sure no returns were made then the QR person would meet with the taxpayer, explaining the return the file the taxes.  The process worked well and in Rowan county we did taxes for about 1700 people.  

Overall this was a wonderful experience.  For anyone looking for a very fulfilling volunteer program, I would strongly suggest you reach out to your local VITA coordinator.

Lastly, kudos to David Post, the VITA coordinator for Rowan County. His dedication to this program not only made it a success but made it enjoyable for the volunteer team.