Curriculums All individuals—including IRS employees participating in the VITA and TCE Programs—who answer tax law questions, instruct tax law, prepare or correct tax returns and/or conduct quality reviews of completed tax returns must be certified. There are six courses of study — Basic Advanced Military International Foreign Students and Scholars Residents of Puerto Rico Each course is performance based and uses a process-based approach to engage students in the tax return preparation process. The courses for foreign students and scholars and for Puerto Rico residents are available only on Link & Learn Taxes. The other four courses are available both on Link & Learn Taxes and in Publication 4491 PDF. Delivery Method Options Link & Learn Taxes is the preferred method for volunteer training. All six courses of study are available on the IRS Website, and each course of study has a curriculum and certification track. Link & Learn Taxes contains a link to the Practice Lab which connects the student to the tax preparation software used at volunteer sites. The Practice Lab also contains problems and exercises for hands-on experience preparing tax returns using tax preparation software. Another useful feature of Link & Learn Taxes is the feedback and scoring feature of the application. Volunteers, instructors, and employees taking the Test/Retest (Form 6744) via Link & Learn Taxes will receive immediate feedback about the accuracy of their entries as well as a certificate of certification (if applicable). Classroom or self-study instruction can be accomplished using Link & Learn Taxes and Publication 4491. Information in the Form 1040 Instructions and in Publication 17 are the major sources of content in both products. Sponsors/coordinators are encouraged to work with local IRS-SPEC tax consultants to determine the appropriate training environment and technical training guide (Link & Learn Taxes or Publication 4491).
