IRS Tax News

IR-2022-97, April 29, 2022

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is accepting applications for the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) grant programs, which will allow some organizations to apply for annual funding for up to three years.

Grants.gov will accept applications beginning May 1 through May 31, 2022, for the TCE and VITA grant opportunities. Application packages and guidelines for 2022 are now available on the IRS website. The IRS, in the past year, awarded 34 TCE grantees $11 million and 300 VITA grantees $25 million. Last year, the two grant programs filed nearly 1.6 million returns nationwide.

The IRS established the TCE program in 1978 to provide tax counseling and return preparation to persons aged 60 or older and to give training and technical assistance to the volunteers who provide free federal income tax assistance within elderly communities across the nation. For more information on the TCE program, visit the IRS's TCE webpage.

The VITA Grant program was established in 2007 to supplement the VITA program created in 1969. VITA provides free tax filing assistance to underserved communities. The grant program enables VITA to extend these services to underserved populations in hardest-to-reach, urban and non-urban areas; increase the capacity of targeted taxpayers to file returns electronically; enhance training of volunteers and improve the accuracy rate of returns prepared at VITA sites.

More information on the VITA grant program is available at IRS VITA Grant Program.