VITA/TCE Military Course Curriculum
The Military course is generally the Advanced course with special emphasis on tax issues that affect armed services personnel and their families, such as combat pay, moving expenses, rental property etc. Volunteers assisting taxpayers with these income issues are required to take this course, which includes the following:
- Important Tax Law Changes
- Course Introduction
- Screening and Interviewing
- Filing Basics
- Filing Status
- Personal Exemptions
- Dependency Exemptions
- Unique Filing Status and Exemption Situations
- Income
- Income - Business; Form 1040
- Income - Capital Gains or Loss
- Income - Retirement Income
- Income - Rental and Schedule K-1s
- Income - Unemployment Compensation
- Income - Social Security Benefits
- Other Income
- Military Income
- Adjustments to Income
- Military Moving Expenses
- Standard Deduction and Tax Computation
- Itemized Deductions
- Military Employee Business Expenses
- Credit for Child and Dependent Care Expenses
- Education Credits
- Foreign Tax Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Miscellaneous Credits
- Other Taxes
- Payments
- Earned Income Credit
- Refund and Amount of Tax Owed
- Quality Review of Tax Return
- Concluding the Interview
- Military Finishing and Filing the Return
- Amended Returns
Other Training Materials, Resources and Tools...
- Practice Technical Interview (Appendix – Publication 4491)
- Cancellation of Debt (optional Link & Link Taxes module)
- Health Savings Account (optional Link & Learn Taxes module)
- Military Comprehensive Problem & Exercises (Publication 4491-W)
- Practice using the tax preparation software (accessible via Link & Learn Taxes -Electronic Software Practice Lab)
- Practice using the interview tips in Publication 4012, Volunteer Resource Guide
- Detailed discussion about the standards of conduct and signing the volunteer agreement
- The testing, retesting and certification requirements (Form 6744)
- Electronic resources on IRS.gov (i.e. Form & Publications Resource page, Partner & Volunteer Resource Center, searchable Publication 17, etc.)
- Search IRS.gov to check-out the Interactive Tax Assistant, Withholding Calculator, Sales tax deduction calculator, Interactive EITC Assistant, Form 1040 Central, Where's My Refund, and more.
Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 2013-04-17
