Donate to CTA

Who Qualifies for CTA’s Assistance:

Generally, we serve individuals and families with income under $64,000*.

*If your income was less than $72,000 in 2023, you may be able to file your 2023 federal and state tax returns on-line for free. For more information see: http://ctadc.org/file-online/

MILITARY MEMBERS: CTA volunteers are not trained to assist military members, but military members can receive free tax preparation assistance regardless of income through Military One Source. For more information, see: https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/tax-resource-center/miltax-military-tax-services

IMPORTANT: Click here to see the list of what to bring.

Taxpayer Situations where we  CANNOT  prepare your return:

Our volunteers are only trained and certified to prepare certain types of tax returns. If you have the following situation, your tax return is out of the scope of our program (Out of scope means we are not allowed to prepare a tax return if the taxpayer has a certain source of income or personal circumstance because our volunteers are not trained or certified to assist taxpayers with the source or income of personal circumstance).

 Types of Income which are out of scope (we cannot prepare your return if you have any of these types of income)

  • Crypto Currency; we cannot prepare your return if you received or sold crypto currency
  • Cancelled Debt (Form 1099-C or 1099-A); we cannot prepare a return with one of these forms UNLESS it was cancelled debt on your principal residence OR it was cancelled personal credit card debt AND there was no interest AND you were not insolvent at the time the debt was cancelled. For more information see: insolvency_worksheet.pdf (irs.gov) and https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4681.pdf
  • Savings Bond we cannot prepare the return if the savings bond interest accrues each year
  • The following types of Capital Gains/Investment Income:
    • Sold a bond with accrued interest
    • 1099-DIV amounts with Unrecaptured Sec.1250 gain, Section 1202 gain, Cash liquidation distributions, and Noncash liquidation distributions
    • Sale of stock and basis is not listed on 1099, or was received as a gift.
    • Sale of property other than main home
    • K-1 income unless it is interest or dividend income, short or long term capital gains, or royalty income (only from a K-1).
  • Distribution was from SIMPLE IRA or SEP IRA
  • Farm income
  • Rental income (including renting out rooms in your own home- no Air B&B)
  • 1099-MISC income that is not reported in boxes 3 or 7
  • Hobby income
  • The following Itemized Deductions
    • Casualty and Theft Losses
    • Non-cash charitable (Goodwill, etc.) contributions greater than $500 (Form 8283)
    • Vehicle donation
    • Unreimbursed employee business expenses (Form 2106)
  • Self-Employment, business or cash income where:
    • Your business is a LLC
    • The Primary source of income is use of your vehicle
    • You need to file business income return on the state level, even if you are reporting the income on your individual tax return on the federal level.
      In DC this may apply if your gross business income was $12,000 or more
    • Hobby income
    • Business expenses over $25,000
    • Net loss, or loss carry over
    • Inventory, or sale of goods
    • You had employees or subcontractors
    • You had business use of home
    • You had casualty losses
    • You claim actual vehicle expenses instead of mileage
    • You have depreciation
    • You had expenses for rental or lease agreements for other than space
    • You do not use cash method

Community Tax Aid does not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, and reprisal for previous civil rights activities. CTA will make every effort to provide reasonable accommodations to persons with physical disabilities, sensory loss, or limited English proficiency. These accommodations will be provided at no cost to the taxpayer.