To register as a community organization for the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program, complete the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) organization registration form.

Once you've registered, a program coordinator in your area will contact you to provide all the necessary information and support you need.

Registration is valid for one year. You must complete the form again next year if you want to continue participating in the program.

How to decide whether a return should be filed for free

Federal income tax returns

Under the program, community organizations must prepare and file federal income tax returns for free. This means that you must refuse any form of compensation.

Québec income tax returns

You can ask individuals for a financial contribution for the preparation of their Québec tax returns. However, it must be modest and reasonable given the community context. The contribution may be used, for example, to cover administrative or advertising costs, or to cover the cost of upgrading equipment and tools for volunteers or providing technical assistance to individuals.

Your responsibilities

As an organization participating in the income tax assistance program, you must ensure that your volunteers comply with the program's terms and conditions of use and that they fulfil their responsibilities regarding the preparation of income tax returns. You must immediately notify regional coordinators if a volunteer fails to comply with any of these requirements.

Note that you must also comply with the same terms and conditions of use.

In addition, you have the following responsibilities:

• You must ensure that your volunteers have received an email confirming their approval to participate in the program before they begin preparing tax returns. To participate they must:
  • register for the program
  • meet the requirements for their role
• You must register your volunteers for NetFile Québec by completing an Application for NetFile Québec Registration for Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program Volunteers (TP-223.PB-V) so that they can file Québec income tax returns online.
• You must send your volunteers the codes they need to use the income tax return preparation software.
• You must ensure that volunteers registered for EFILE do not use another volunteer's EFILE number, EFILE password or NetFile Québec access code to file returns with the CRA or Revenu Québec. Volunteers should not share this information among themselves.
• You must ensure that your volunteers enter the CVITP Organization Identification Number (COIN) in the appropriate field in the UFile–CVITP software.
• You must designate separate workspaces for your sessions on your premises to ensure the protection and confidentiality of individuals' personal information.
• You must keep all documents and personal information in a secure (i.e. locked) space.
• You must ensure that your volunteers comply with the provisions of the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

Approval of your organization's registration for the program

An email will be sent to you once your registration has been approved. You will then be able to participate in the income tax assistance program.

The email will contain your COIN, a unique and permanent number that must be entered into the tax software. It is used to keep track of how many federal income tax returns your organization files electronically, which in turn allows us to determine the number of returns filed under the program.

Your personalized space

Once you've registered, you'll need to brush up on your tax knowledge to assist your volunteers and ensure that your tax preparation sessions run smoothly. That's why we've put everything you'll need, including information about your role, in a personalized space that you can access online anytime.

After you register, we'll send you a user code to access the space. It's that easy!

In your personalized space, you'll find:

• a learning guide that includes the following:
  • a comprehensive tax guide that addresses the tax situations that volunteers are likely to encounter
  • a section on basic tax concepts
  • instructions on how to use UFile CVITP software for specific tax situations
  • a section with case studies
  • a list of the tax changes for the current filing season
• a promotional kit to help you recruit volunteers for the program
• information about income tax preparation sessions
• working documents and forms
• a calendar of tax webinars for organizations and volunteers

Note that your volunteers will also have access to a personalized space with everything they need.