[Maps]

Privacy Policy

Remove the override capability!

Using overrides may seem a quick way of filling forms; however, it means that you are doing all the checking rather than letting TaxWise do it for you.  Advise the volunteers to avoid using overrides, and to reinforce the point, take away that capability by setting the appropriate privileges for you own user group.

 

Customize those Print Packages!

Rather than print individual forms or select which forms to print, it is generally useful to set up Print Packages for different purposes.  At one site, the file copy generates one copy of each form and worksheets, and is given to the taxpayer for their permanent records.  The signature pages include 1 copy each of the Federal and State 8879 for the taxpayer to sign and return.  Individual forms should be printed directly from the return rather than from the print package or classic print menus unless it is to replace or duplicate a single form.

 

Be kind to trees! Print forms, don't order, stash and recycle!

It seems a good idea to order large quantities of tax forms to keep on hand in case of need.  At the VITA Milpitas Community Library, only intake forms are ordered since they are filled by hand by taxpayers.   Generally, when forms are ordered, they arrive packed in separate boxes.  When space is limited, it is not possible to spread out the forms, and difficult to locate the relevant form since the boxes are not labeled with their contents.  If the site is affiliated with a library, it is possible to use forms that the Library distributes.  In other cases, it is easier to print out blank forms as needed than hunt for the right form.  While this may appear wasteful, experience shows that when pre-printed forms were ordered, several boxes of forms were recycled at the end of the season, but less than two full boxes of blank paper were used for the whole tax season.

 

Set the Site Name, SIDN and EFIN on the Tax Forms Default Page AND Forget!

In site visits year after year, a lot of time was spent establishing if the Site Name, address, SIDN, EFIN and correctly entered on each generated return.   It is a waste of volunteer time trying to remember this information each time and entering it.  A better solution is to fill in the information on the Tax Forms Default Page for the Admin users, and periodically copy it over to the directory of each user.  This way, once the Site Coordinator has set this up, the only thing the IRS visitor needs to check is if the computer knows how to run TaxWise properly.

 

Lock some fields!

With respect to the Site Name, SIDN and EFIN on the Tax Forms Default, an even better practice is to set the fields to the values relevant for you and lock them so that most users cannot change them.  It may be entertaining to see Relationship Managers going scrupulously and painstakingly over each field to check that the computer remembers the setting on the forms.  Try not to LOL  too much!  In fact, why not lock all the fields on the 1040 so that the volunteers have to fill in those schedules and worksheets rather than use the calculators and override field values that are best left calculated by the computer???  It was found that although these fields could not be overriden, they could be used to link to worksheets, schedules and other forms.

 

Create those e-files early!

Creating the e-file before printing out the 8879s is helpful because that way the DCNs will appear on the 8879 rather than you filling it in by hand later in the tiny space available for it.  However, you will need to assure your volunteers that it would not be the end of the world if the taxpayer changes his or her mind about e-filing with you.  This fear of accidentally sending the e-file to the IRS seems to have its origin in the TaxWise training with undue emphasis on the importance of filling accurate e-files.  Volunteers need to be given the confidence and the requirement to create an e-file even if it has to be changed later, so that you as the transmitter can be sure that at some point the return was ready for filing, and it will also help the volunteer get rid of some of those errors.  The reality is that e-files need to be proactively sent rather than be sent automatically.  The ironic part is that the login requirements for transmitting and accepting acknowledgements is much less stringent than for logging in to the TaxWise support website or TaxWise University.