2023 CA Counselor Reference Manual

AARP Tax-Aide Program

• Chromebooks issued to counselors include, as a default, links to counselor reference materials such as the NTTC-modified version of Pub 4012. 
• From other computers, those materials are at https://ta-nttc.tiny.us/NTTC-Resources (NTTC Google Drive). 
• It shouldn’t be necessary to go to the Libraries section of the Volunteer Portal (volunteers.aarp.org) to find reference materials for tax preparation. . 
• The shared CA-wide REFERENCES Google Drive (tiny.cc/ca-ref) includes CA-specific material, such as an electronic copy of this manual, as well as selected links to NTTC-prepared reference materials.
• You should NOT act on information from “IRS Quality Alerts.” Tax-Aide will redistribute relevant alerts as CyberTax messages, automatically sent to all volunteers with an email address in the Tax-Aide database.

Internal Revenue Service and Franchise Tax Board 

• IRS website – Publications (“Pubs”), forms, and answers to tax questions: irs.gov/
• Franchise Tax Board (State of California)
• Publications, forms, and answers to questions: ftb.ca.gov
• Email for questions from Tax-Aide and similar free tax preparation services programs: volunteercoordinator@ftb.ca.gov
• MyFTB – Information for a taxpayer: estimated tax payments made, balance due, CA wage and withholding information: ftb.ca.gov/myftb (requires prior year’s state tax information to register for an account; PIN will be sent via mail, after registration, and is required to log in).

               **Do not share Volunteer Hotline numbers with taxpayers**

* For tax law issues 

** Note for CA state returns: In ID-theft cases, paper-file the California return. The FTB will contact the taxpayer regarding discrepancies. The CA ID Theft Resolution Coordinator should be contacted only after a federal ID theft case has been set up.

TaxSlayer

• TaxSlayer has a Knowledgebase that can be consulted for answers to commonly asked questions: taxslayerpro.com/support. 
• The “VITA/TCE User Guide – TaxSlayer Pro Online” is a comprehensive document, with extensive screen shots, for everything that the Tax-Aide program does in TaxSlayer. It can be found as follows: from the Main Menu, Office Client List, or similar pages, click “VITA/TCE Publications and User Guides” in the left navigation bar, wait for “Loading media” to finish, click the “Attachments” tab, then click “TaxSlayer Pro Online User Guide”.
• The first 10 or so pages of content describe logins and passwords; the next 240+ pages are for administrators; the next 330+ pages cover how to prepare a tax return, and the final 100+ pages are again for EROs and administrators. 
• The TaxSlayer VITA/TCE blog is at vitablog.taxslayerpro.com.
• During the tax season (roughly mid-January to mid-April), TaxSlayer provides real-time support via both chat and phone support (800-421-6346) from 8 a.m. to midnight, Eastern Standard Time, on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.
• On-line chat is available from inside a taxpayer return – click “Help & Support”, and then “Chat With Us”. 

• Note: Chat is not available from within Practice Lab. 

• Questions can also be emailed to support@vita.taxslayerpro.com; hours for review/response are the same as above. Do not provide excessive personal information about a taxpayer – the last name and last four digits of the taxpayer SSN, plus your EFIN (see the bottom of federal Form 8879) or SIDN (see the bottom of Form 1040 of the PDF for the taxpayer, in the “PTIN” field) is sufficient. 

Recommended steps for researching an unfamiliar topic

• Question the taxpayer thoroughly and review their paperwork to obtain all relevant facts.
• Begin with the Tax-Aide-specific NTTC-modified version of Pub 4012, VITA/TCE Volunteer Resource Guide, (a Chromebook link) which provides information for most common questions, including questions related to TaxSlayer, in an easy-to-use format.  This version is updated for Tax-Aide scope.
• Note that the widely-available printed version of this is an IRS publication issued in October, missing Tax-Aide specific information.
• Pub 4491-X, VITA/TCE Training Supplement, is normally published by the IRS in December and contains updates to Pub 4012, Pub 4491, and other IRS publications. The NTTC-modified version of Pub 4012 (link above) will be updated shortly thereafter.
• Review what this manual recommends. (If you’re reading the paper version, remember you can search the electronic version as well as use the paper index at the end of this manual, and that an updated version of the manual, electronic-only, is normally released in late January or early February.)
• Consult the instructions for the relevant tax form that you’re working with.

• In TaxSlayer, if not in a return: click “IRS Publications, Instructions, and Fill-In Forms” (left navigation menu), then “Instructions".
• In TaxSlayer, if in a return: click the taxpayer’s name to get the pull-down menu > Helpful Tools > IRS Publications.
• CA: ftb.ca.gov/forms/search

• For federal tax questions, consult Pub 17 – use a keyword search in the electronic version or, in the paper version, start in the index looking under a main heading first, then a subheading.

• For California tax questions, consult one of these FTB Pubs: 
• California Personal Income Tax Booklet – Instructions for Form 540 
• 1001, Supplemental Guidelines to California Adjustments (available via e-mail only)
• 1005, Pension and Annuity Guidelines
• 5130, VITA/TCE California Volunteer Reference Manual
• Ask a more experienced counselor.
• Review NTTC documents - https://ta-nttc.tiny.us/NTTC-Resources 

• Use one of the Volunteer Hotlines listed on page 1.

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