Do you want to volunteer?

Tax-aide helps client
A volunteer helps a taxpayer at an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide center .                       Photo by Simon Brut

We’d love to have you as part of our team!

You don’t need to be an AARP member to be an AARP volunteer. You just need to want to help others and enjoy working with other dedicated volunteers.

We need you to do tax returns, of course. But we also need you if you would like to help make appointments, greet clients as they arrive, review their paperwork, be a technical resource, or help organize a new site.

What’s involved?

  1. First, sign up on the AARP volunteer web site. This will give us some idea of the skills you already have and where best to fit you in. Your information will be passed along to a location near your home address and one of our leaders will contact you.
  2. If you will be doing tax returns, you’ll receive a package of training material from the IRS in the fall. Using that, other on-line resources and locally provided training classes, you’ll learn the tax law basics and how to use our software.
  3. In late January, you will take an open-book IRS Certification test to make sure you either know the basics of the tax law or know how to find the answers. And, you’ll create some sample tax returns as practice with an assigned mentor.
  4. Then, February through mid-April, you’ll be helping clients with their tax returns. When you run across a new twist, your mentor or others at the site will be happy to help you continue to improve your tax preparation skills and you’ll soon become an expert!