AARP Tax-Aide WA District 18: 2015

Monday, December 28, 2015

Second New Volunteer Orientation

There will be a second New Volunteer Orientation on Wednesday December 30 from 10:00 am - noon at:

Thurston Economic Development Council

Conference Room

4220 6th Street SE

Lacey, WA 98503

Please let me know if you will be there.

Friday, November 13, 2015

New Volunteer Training Dates

Training for New Volunteers in 2016 will be on:
Monday January 04
Wednesday January 06
Friday January 08
Monday January 11
Wednesday January 13
Friday January 15
Wednesday January 20
Friday January 22

Times will be from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. As soon as I have a location I will let you know.

Returning Volunteer Training Dates

Training for Returning Volunteers will be on Saturday January 16 & 23, 2016 from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. As soon as I have a location I will let you know.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

IRS Scam Again

There is a scam resurfacing regarding the IRS. Someone is calling and saying they are the IRS and threatening a lawsuit. If any taxpayers call you please reassure them this is a scam. The IRS will never call taxpayers, it is always done by correspondence or in person.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

IRS Website Hacked

The official IRS statement on this is currently here:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Statement-on-the-Get-Transcript-Application

The Q & A on the topic is here:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Get-Transcript-Application-Questions-and-Answers

One of the most helpful answers is the following:

Q. What is the IRS doing to protect taxpayers affected by this?

A. The IRS is taking several steps, including marking the accounts of affected taxpayers on our core tax account system to protect them against identity theft if someone else tries to file a tax return in their name, both right now and in 2016. The IRS is also sending letters to affected taxpayers with additional information, and offering credit monitoring to those whose transcript information was accessed.

Several Q and As directly concern the letter the taxpayers may receive:

Q. I didn’t get a letter. Should I be concerned about the security of my tax information?

A. Protecting taxpayer data is a top priority for the IRS. This incident was isolated to one of our online applications; it did not involve our core system where taxpayer accounts are housed. We do not believe that general taxpayer information is jeopardized by this incident beyond those affected taxpayers’ transcript accounts.

Q. Should I call to find out if I’m receiving a letter?

A. The IRS advises not calling. Phone lines remain extremely busy due to staffing limitations, and phone assistors will not have access to additional information. Affected taxpayers will be receiving a letter directly advising them about the attempted or successful unauthorized access to their transcript and how to activate the protections we are offering them.

Q. How do I know the letter is actually from the IRS and not someone else?

A. Taxpayers can contact the IRS if they are unsure of the letter. The IRS emphasizes to taxpayers that in a notification letter like this, it will not request the taxpayer sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers or credit card or financial information.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Annuity Pension Calculator

http://aarp.bogarthome.net/Annuity-Pension%20Calculator.htm

Cancellation of Debt

CHANGE IN SCOPE FOR AARP FOUNDATION TAX-AIDE ONLY

When the extenders were passed by Congress, the Cancellation
of Debt income due to foreclosure was included.
Since there is no specific certification for this and there is no
training material available from SPEC to train our volunteers, this topic and
the associated form 982 will be out-of-scope for this year in the AARP
Foundation Tax-Aide program. All other extenders for individuals will continue to be in-scope as they have been in the past.

Our volunteers who successfully certify at the Advanced
level will be able to continue to do cancellation of debt from Credit Cards
only.