VITA Tax Intern

Careers at MEDA >> Private: Internships >> VITA Tax Intern

Agency Summary

Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) is a community-based, local economic development organization which has engaged individuals and small businesses in community-building strategies for over 40 years. Our mission is to achieve economic justice for San Francisco’s low and moderate income Latino families through asset development.

Program Learning Outcomes

Internships are designed to expand the depth and breadth of academic learning for you in your particular areas of study. It is an opportunity for you to receive experience in applying theories learned in the classroom to specific experiences in the community and workplace. An internship can also heighten your awareness of community issues, motivate you to create opportunities, embrace new ideas, and give direction to positive change. A successful internship can give you valuable information in making decisions about the direction of future studies or employment.

By the end of the internship our hope is that the you will be able to:

Demonstrate leadership skills and gain confidence entering the workplace.
Demonstrate the fundamental behaviors of cultural competency.
Evaluate your fit within a career field and understand career pathways.
Describe your knowledge about working in a mission driven, high performing environment.
Create a network of peers and professionals to help you in your career path.
Add your internship experience, skills gained and goals accomplished to your resume.

Internship Objectives

Internship objectives are goals established to ensure the intern’s productivity and growth as part of his or her experience within the organization. These objectives are project and training based, aligned with the job description, and/or provide structure to the student and supervisor for the time spent at the internship.

Interns will gain familiarity with office structure and field-specific knowledge through an orientation, job shadows with staff members not on the team, observing all staff meetings, and participating in community events.
Interns will be exposed to all facets of a high performing service providing organization by adding capacity to a program and participating in weekly assessments, database training and updating, researching, writing blogs, staff socials, mentor lunches and monthly Lunch and Learn sessions
Intern will gain understanding about the culture of our community and clients by attending community events, working with clients at the office and on various projects.
Intern will follow professional, safety and confidentiality standards by arriving on time, following the dress code, learning about time management, how to work independently and in a team and customer service standards.
Interns will gain a professional network by participating in a cohort of interns, job shadowing, cross training with at least three other programs, and work on projects with their cohort.

Purpose

Provide free tax return preparation to persons eligible for service. As a Tax intern, you will get the opportunity to improve your skills and learn about asset development services, while helping thousands of low-income families keep millions of dollars in tax returns. You will help the site coordinator manage each site by taking charge everyday admin operations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Commit to volunteering a minimum of 12-15 hours per week.
○ Ideally: from December 5th until April 29thth.
Attend tax certification training and successfully pass a test on required tax law knowledge.
Assist the Site Coordinator with managing admin operations
○ Log in volunteer hours
○ Help manage front desk and assist greeters
○ Help Quality Review
○ Help troubleshoot TaxSlayer issues.
Commit to attending at least one of the trainings for new volunteers to provide assistance and help the Tax Program Manager with training.
Attend open labs for new volunteers and help work with trainees one on one.
Be willing to mentor and let new volunteers shadow you on their first volunteer shifts.
Answer any tax related questions and get help from a site coordinator if you need support.
Identify all returns with the site identification number assigned to the site.
Maintain confidentiality of taxpayer information.
Ensure on-site quality review is performed on completed returns prior to taxpayer signature.
Ensure a copy of the completed return is provided to the taxpayer, and that no compensation of any kind is accepted for the volunteer services provided.