Volunteering at Tax Clinics

Many CPAs volunteer to prepare personal tax returns for low-income taxpayers in their communities. We wish to draw your attention to a new exemption requirement applicable to members who are not already licensed for public practice.

When volunteering to prepare tax returns for low-income taxpayers at an organized tax clinic, you need to apply for the exemption from licensing if you are:

• employed in industry, government, and other sectors outside of public practice;
• employed in public practice but not personally licensed; or
• licensed for public practice holding an “Other Regulated Services – Non-reviewable” license (this category does not permit members to prepare T1s).

You do not need to apply for this exemption if you are already licensed for public practice in a category other than “Other Regulated Services – Non-reviewable.”

You can apply for this exemption only if the tax returns you are preparing meet all the criteria. These include: no fee being charged, gross household income not exceeding certain thresholds, and the taxpayers not having certain types of income. Check out the details on the Volunteer Tax Services page of our website.