I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4835 
To facilitate nationwide availability of volunteer income tax assistance for 
low-income and underserved populations, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 22, 2016 
Mr. HONDA (for himself, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. 
RANGEL, Ms. NORTON, Mr. TONKO, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. HINO-
JOSA, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. VELA, Mr. 
CONNOLLY, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Ms. EDWARDS, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. PAL-
LONE, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. PETERSON, Ms. JUDY CHU of Cali-
fornia, Mr. CROWLEY, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. 
CONYERS, Mr. GRAYSON, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. BROWNLEY of California, 
and Mr. CLAY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To facilitate nationwide availability of volunteer income tax 
assistance for low-income and underserved populations, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Volunteer Income Tax 
Assistance (VITA) Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Community Volunteer Income Tax Assist-
ance (VITA) programs offer tax preparation and re-
lated financial services, free of charge, to middle- 
and low-income individuals and families. The major-
ity of individuals served by VITA programs have an-
nual household earnings below $53,000. 
(2) During the 2014 Federal income tax filing 
season, VITA programs filed 1,700,000 Federal in-
come tax returns and prepared more than 551,000 
returns for the earned income tax credit (EITC), 
helping program recipients claim $2,475,000,000 in 
Federal tax refunds. One in five taxpayers who were 
eligible to claim the EITC failed to do so. 
(3) VITA programs assist underserved tax-
payers, including low-wage workers, persons with 
disabilities, the elderly, Native Americans, rural pop-
ulations, and taxpayers with limited English pro-
ficiency. 
(4) Volunteer tax preparation programs save 
the 
Internal 
Revenue 
Service 
an 
estimated 
$6,200,000 a year in return processing costs. In 
2014, clients of VITA programs electronically filed 
their tax returns at a much higher rate (95.8 per-
cent) than the general population (85.6 percent). 
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(5) Not only do electronic returns cost the In-
ternal Revenue Service considerably less to process 
($0.17 per return) than paper returns ($3.66 per re-
turn), but electronic returns also generate a low 
error rate of 2.5 percent compared with a 25 percent 
error rate for paper returns. Low error rates reduce 
the need for the Internal Revenue Service to cor-
respond with taxpayers and for taxpayers to resub-
mit paperwork. 
(6) The use of technology in meeting the needs 
of taxpayers with physical, sensory, or cognitive dis-
abilities is essential to the success of the VITA pro-
gram, as demonstrated through the expanded use of 
innovative assistive technology and strategies in-
tended to expand free tax preparation for deaf and 
hearing impaired taxpayers. These innovative uses of 
assistive technologies should continue to be rep-
licated and tested to expand capacity of VITA pro-
grams in successfully meeting the needs of taxpayers 
with various disabilities. 
(7) An Internal Revenue Service survey has 
shown that very low-income taxpayers are twice as 
likely as the general population to visit a Taxpayer 
Assistance Center and half as likely to use the Inter-
nal Revenue Service Web site. Volunteer tax prepa-
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ration programs serve as an accessible and cost-ef-
fective alternative to other Internal Revenue Service 
channels. 
(8) Internal Revenue Service estimates from fis-
cal year 2005 found that the volunteer preparation 
program cost $12.01 per contact, while Taxpayer 
Assistance Centers and assisted toll-free calls aver-
aged $28.73 and $19.46 per contact, respectively. 
(9) The number of tax returns prepared by the 
VITA program increased 220 percent between the 
2004 (500,000) and 2012 (1,600,000 returns) tax 
filing seasons. 
(10) The demand on this integral community 
service continues to rise as the Nation recovers from 
the significant economic downturn of recent years 
and VITA programs are experiencing strained re-
sources and limited capacity. 
(11) Through mid-April of fiscal year 2015, 
288 organizations applied to the Internal Revenue 
Service seeking more than $25,100,000 in grant 
funding—more than double the available resources— 
through the VITA program, and 209 received grants 
at a median grant of approximately $42,000. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
As used in this Act: 
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(1) QUALIFIED
RETURN
PREPARATION
PRO-
GRAM.—The term ‘‘qualified return preparation pro-
gram’’ means any program— 
(A) which provides assistance to individ-
uals, not less than 90 percent of whom are low- 
income taxpayers, in preparing and filing Fed-
eral income tax returns, including schedules re-
porting sole proprietorship or farm income, 
(B) which is administered by a qualified 
entity, 
(C) in which all of the volunteers who as-
sist in the preparation of Federal income tax 
returns meet the training requirements pre-
scribed by the Secretary, and 
(D) which uses a quality review process 
which reviews 100 percent of all returns. 
(2) QUALIFIED ENTITY.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘qualified en-
tity’’ means any entity which— 
(i) is described in subparagraph (B), 
(ii) is in compliance with Federal tax 
filing and payment requirements, 
(iii) is not debarred or suspended 
from Federal contracts, grants, or coopera-
tive agreements, and 
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(iv) agrees to provide documentation 
to substantiate any matching funds pro-
vided under the VITA grant program. 
(B) ENTITY DESCRIBED.—An entity is de-
scribed in this subparagraph if such entity is— 
(i) an institution of higher education 
which is described in section 102 (other 
than subsection (a)(1)(C) thereof) of the 
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1088), as in effect on the date of the en-
actment of this section, and which has not 
been disqualified from participating in a 
program under title IV of such Act, 
(ii) an organization described in sec-
tion 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 and exempt from tax under sec-
tion 501(a) of such Code, 
(iii) a State or local government agen-
cy, including— 
(I) a county or municipal govern-
ment agency, 
(II) an Indian tribe, as defined in 
section 4(12) of the Native American 
Housing Assistance and Self-Deter-
mination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 
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