This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Internal Revenue Service will accept applications for the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) grant programs through June 2, 2014. Some organizations can apply to receive annual funding for up to three years.

Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov. Previous grant recipients have the option to apply for up to three years of annual funding, which reduces the amount of paperwork that must be completed annually and helps recipients with budget planning.

Interested applicants can find TCE and VITA application packages on Grants.gov. Electronic versions of the grant application package instructions, Publication 1101 for TCE and Publication 4671 for VITA, can be found on the IRS.gov website.

The TCE program was established in 1978 to provide tax counseling and return preparation to persons who are 60 or older. Volunteers who provide free federal income tax help to seniors nationwide receive free training and technical assistance.

The VITA program, created in 1969, provides free federal income tax filing assistance to underserved communities. The VITA Grant program was established in 2007 to supplement the VITA program. The grant program enables VITA to extend services to underserved populations in hard-to-reach urban and non-urban areas. It increases the taxpayer's ability to electronically file returns and enhances volunteer training to improve the accuracy rate of returns prepared at VITA sites.