1. Introduction – What is Publication 5374?
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Publication 5374 is an official administrative fact sheet formally titled Fact Sheet: Filing Season 2026: Link & Learn Taxes Certification Reports for SPEC Employees. Officially released and posted on January 27, 2026, following its October 2025 revision date, this publication serves as an essential procedural roadmap for IRS staff preparing for the 2026 tax filing season.
The document is maintained by the Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC) division of the IRS. SPEC is the outreach and educational branch responsible for partnering with community organizations across the United States to deliver free tax filing assistance to low-to-moderate-income families, elderly individuals, persons with disabilities, and taxpayers with limited English proficiency.
At its core, Publication 5374 explains how IRS SPEC employees and authorized leaders can access, generate, and evaluate certification reports from “Link & Learn Taxes.” Link & Learn Taxes is the IRS’s official online learning and testing application where thousands of community volunteers earn their credentials each filing season. This publication ensures that only properly certified, ethical volunteers prepare federal tax returns for eligible Americans.
2. Who Should Read This Publication
While standard IRS publications like Publication 17 target general individual taxpayers, Publication 5374 is primarily written for personnel operating within or alongside the IRS community tax assistance ecosystem. It provides the operating standards necessary to keep free tax preparation programs secure and fully compliant.
The key groups who benefit from reading Publication 5374 include:
- IRS SPEC Employees and Territory Specialists: IRS staff members who oversee volunteer site operations, track compliance, and provide technical assistance to community partner organizations.
- VITA and TCE Sponsoring Partners: Executives and administrators at non-profits, universities, and local government agencies that sponsor Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs.
- Site Coordinators: The dedicated supervisors running physical or virtual tax clinics who need to verify that their volunteer intake specialists, tax preparers, and quality reviewers hold active certifications.
- Tax Students and Accounting Volunteers: Aspiring tax professionals who want a behind-the-scenes understanding of how the IRS verifies volunteer training, security protocols, and testing milestones.
3. Key Topics Covered
Publication 5374 outlines the administrative protocols required to manage volunteer credentials. It cuts through complex technical database operations to give IRS personnel clear instructions for tracking volunteer progress.
The core subjects covered within this fact sheet include:
- Link & Learn Taxes Database Access: Step-by-step instructions for authorized personnel to request administrative logins, set strong passwords, and safeguard internal access.
- Report Generation: Guidance on running automated reports to check volunteer testing status, completion dates, and scoring summaries across territories.
- Volunteer Certification Levels: The separation of testing tiers, ranging from basic volunteer ethics to advanced tax topics.
- Taxpayer Information Safeguards: Privacy standards regarding volunteer Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and the rules for sharing volunteer data with external partner sites.
- Quality Site Compliance: Methods for reconciling volunteer testing records against physical volunteer rosters to maintain overall program integrity.
4. Detailed Breakdown of Main Concepts
Understanding the SPEC Division
The Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC) division is the primary IRS entity supporting non-profit tax coalitions. SPEC employees do not audit taxpayers. Instead, they build community partnerships that expand free tax preparation and financial education to underserved communities.
What is Link & Learn Taxes?
Link & Learn Taxes is an interactive web-based training platform managed by the IRS. It provides free courses, practice scenarios, and certification exams for volunteers. Every volunteer must achieve a passing score of at least 80% on each exam before they are permitted to work with real taxpayer data.
Certification Tracks and Scope
Publication 5374 breaks down how reports reflect various certification modules. Volunteers cannot prepare returns containing complex tax topics unless they have passed the corresponding exam level:
- Volunteer Standards of Conduct (VSC): Mandatory training on ethics, confidentiality, and data protection required for every volunteer role.
- Intake/Interview and Quality Review: Instruction on verifying taxpayer identity and conducting required quality control steps.
- Basic Exam: Covers fundamental filing requirements, standard deductions, simple wage income (Form W-2), and common child-related tax credits.
- Advanced Exam: Prepares volunteers for capital gains, self-employment income, pensions, and itemized deductions.
- Specialty Modules: Includes military tax issues, international student tax returns, and site coordinator training.
Data Privacy and Report Sanitization
A critical rule detailed in Publication 5374 involves data privacy. While territory managers can see complete regional datasets, site coordinators are only permitted to receive sanitized reports showing the volunteers registered to their specific clinic. This prevents unauthorized personnel from viewing outside personal data.
5. Practical Examples or Scenarios
Scenario 1: Opening Week at a University VITA Clinic
A local university runs a free VITA clinic staffed by undergraduate accounting students. Before opening the doors to the public in early February, the site coordinator contacts their designated IRS SPEC relationship manager. Using the reporting instructions outlined in Publication 5374, the SPEC employee pulls the site’s official Link & Learn Taxes certification roster. The coordinator discovers that two student preparers passed their ethics test but forgot to submit their Basic Tax Law exam. Thanks to the report, the coordinator assigns those students to greeting duties until they finish their tax exam, preventing an ethics violation.
Scenario 2: An IRS Quality Site Review
During the peak of the tax season, an IRS SPEC analyst conducts an unannounced Quality Site Review at a community center. The analyst compares the list of active volunteers preparing returns against the Link & Learn certification report generated via Publication 5374 guidelines. Because the report confirms that every preparer holds a current Advanced certification, the site passes its compliance check without delays.
6. How This Publication Relates to Specific Forms
Publication 5374 functions as an operational bridge connecting IRS administrative tracking to the official forms used throughout the volunteer tax network.
| IRS Form | Form Name / Description | Relationship to Publication 5374 |
|---|---|---|
| Form 13615 | Volunteer Standards of Conduct Agreement – VITA/TCE Programs | The individual certification agreement signed by volunteers. Link & Learn Taxes automatically updates this form when tests are passed, and Publication 5374 reports verify these records. |
| Form 6744 | VITA/TCE Volunteer Assistor’s Test/Retest | The paper test booklet containing the questions found in Link & Learn Taxes. Publication 5374 guides staff on recording and verifying these testing milestones. |
| Form 13206 | Staff and Volunteer Roster | The site-level roster that coordinators submit to the IRS. SPEC employees cross-reference this roster against the Link & Learn reports generated through Publication 5374. |
| Form 1040 / 1040-SR | U.S. Individual Income Tax Return | The end product prepared for taxpayers. Only volunteers verified through Publication 5374 reporting protocols may prepare and review these returns at volunteer sites. |
7. Common Misunderstandings Clarified
Because Publication 5374 contains technical terminology, taxpayers and volunteers often misinterpret its scope and purpose.
- Misunderstanding 1: “Publication 5374 tells taxpayers how to file their returns.”
Reality: Publication 5374 does not contain tax calculation rules, deduction amounts, or credit formulas for individual taxpayers. It is strictly an administrative guide for IRS staff to monitor volunteer training records. - Misunderstanding 2: “Volunteers can prepare any tax return once certified.”
Reality: Certification is modular. A volunteer who only passed the Basic exam cannot prepare a return involving business expenses or capital gains. Publication 5374 reports help supervisors enforce these limits. - Misunderstanding 3: “Anyone can download volunteer test results.”
Reality: Link & Learn Taxes certification reports contain private details, including volunteer usernames and testing histories. Access is strictly controlled, and reports distributed to partner sites must be sanitized to protect personal privacy.
8. Why This Publication Matters for Taxpayers
Even though everyday taxpayers do not read Publication 5374, it directly impacts their filing experience and financial well-being. When an eligible taxpayer walks into a free VITA or TCE site, they place their sensitive financial records into the hands of a volunteer.
Publication 5374 gives taxpayers peace of mind by enforcing quality control. By ensuring that every volunteer’s credentials are tracked and verified through standardized reports, the IRS safeguards taxpayers against inaccurate filings, overlooked tax credits, and accidental audit risks. It provides the oversight needed to keep free tax preparation safe, accurate, and completely confidential.
9. Frequently Asked Questions
Can a regular taxpayer look up their preparer’s score on Link & Learn Taxes?
No. Individual test scores are private. However, every certified volunteer must sign and display Form 13615, which indicates whether they have passed the required certification levels for that tax year.
How often does the IRS update Publication 5374?
The IRS updates Publication 5374 annually in preparation for the upcoming filing season. The 2026 filing season update was revised in October 2025 and posted for operational use in January 2026.
What happens if a volunteer fails their certification exam?
Link & Learn Taxes allows volunteers to take a retest module if they do not achieve the mandatory 80% passing score on their first attempt. The certification reports detailed in Publication 5374 track retest results to ensure standards are met.
Is Link & Learn Taxes only for IRS employees?
No. The Link & Learn Taxes training website is publicly accessible to any volunteer wishing to learn tax law. However, the administrative reporting tools explained in Publication 5374 are reserved for IRS SPEC employees and designated partner coordinators.
10. Conclusion
IRS Publication 5374 plays a critical behind-the-scenes role in upholding the quality of America’s volunteer tax assistance programs. Released in January 2026 for the 2026 tax filing season, this fact sheet gives IRS SPEC employees the clear administrative guidance required to track volunteer testing and maintain high ethical standards.
By keeping certification records accurate and volunteer compliance high, Publication 5374 protects both community organizations and the millions of taxpayers who rely on free tax preparation services each year.
