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2. Fiscal Year 2020 Grantees: Required Grant Webinar
Jessica Delcid | Grant Coordinator
October 16, 2019

3. Jessica Delcid, Grant Coordinator
Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Delcid. I am the Grant Coordinator and the Volunteer Outreach Coordinator of the Outreach Team at the Minnesota Department of Revenue. I administer the grant to provide volunteer taxpayer assistance services and I educate VITA and AARP tax-aide volunteers throughout the state on Minnesota tax laws.
If you have any questions throughout the webinar, submit them through the chat feature and send them to all participants or Sarah Bjorklund and I will answer them at the end of the presentation.

4. Disclaimer
This presentation is for educational purposes only. It is meant to accompany an oral presentation and not to be used as a standalone document. This presentation is based on the facts and circumstances being discussed and on the laws in effect when it is presented. It does not supersede or alter any provisions of Minnesota laws, administrative rules, court cases, or revenue notices. If you have any grant-related questions, call us at or (toll-free), or

5. Today’s Agenda Grant awards Reimbursement of grant funds
Required Minnesota tax training
Deadlines and due dates
Monitoring visits

6. Revenue has a new website!
Improved design and content
Easier navigation
Mobile responsive
Task-based layout
You will still be able to find the grant related documents by typing “Grant” into the Search box at the upper right hand corner of the website.

7. 35 grantees for FY20 Grant Awards
Thank you for taking time today to join our webinar to learn important details about this year’s grant requirements. For Fiscal Year 2020, we have 35 organizations who have been awarded grant funds. I am looking forward to seeing how your organization’s grant awards can help you provide excellent volunteer taxpayer assistance services to low income, elderly, and disadvantaged Minnesotans during 2020.
You play such an important role in helping taxpayers file accurate federal and Minnesota income tax returns, and Minnesota property tax refund returns, and we thank you for your participation in the VITA or AARP TCE programs and providing these valuable services to your community!

8. Grant Program Goals for Fiscal Year 2020
Increase multilingual volunteers
Expand the number of sites in areas with underserved populations:
Greater Minnesota
North Minneapolis
Brooklyn Park
North East Minneapolis
Brooklyn Center
In awarding grants for Fiscal Year 2020, the department set the following program goals:
To increase multilingual volunteers at free tax preparation sites throughout Minnesota.
To Expand the number of free tax preparation sites in areas with underserved populations lacking access to free tax preparation services, specifically: Greater Minnesota, Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, North Minneapolis, and North East Minneapolis.
You are all working towards these goals to improve the volunteer taxpayer assistance services provided to Minnesotans. We need to celebrate some of the successes we are seeing already!
In the grant proposals, there were several organizations who listed languages spoken other than English, and three organizations who requested grant funds for translation services.
The grant proposals also showed four organizations who will be opening a total of five new free tax preparation sites in Greater Minnesota.
Give yourselves a big pat on the back for working together to achieve these goals.

9. Grant Awards and Expenses
Grant funds are awarded as a lump sum
Grant expenses must fall within these four expense categories:
Equipment and accessories
Advertising
Salaries
Other expenses
Grant funds are awarded as one lump sum to your organization, meaning you can choose to spend the grant funds however you would like as long as the expense falls with the 4 categories: Equipment and accessories, advertising, salaries, other expenses.
Reimbursement requests must be separated into the four categories. You may spend the total amount awarded in any of these four categories. A list of expenses that qualify within these categories is included in the RFP on page We will go through some specifics regarding salaries and advertising expenses on the next few slides.

10. Salary Funding Must be reasonable Cannot be used to pay volunteers
Salary funding cannot be used to pay volunteers. Volunteer activities include, but are not limited to, conducting intake, preparing tax returns, doing quality review, and interpreting.
Grant funds also may not be used to pay for administrative costs for preparing the grant application.
Grant funds used for salaries must be paid to individuals specifically for services performed for the volunteer taxpayer assistance program. This must be well documented so that you can request reimbursement.
Salary funding can be used to pay for interpreter services if hiring an outside agency. If a volunteer is bilingual and is interpreting, they cannot be paid.

11. Print Advertisements Print advertisements must:
Be reviewed and approved by the department before printing.
Be reviewed and approved each grant period.
Include: “Service made available through a grant provided by the State of Minnesota.”
Be professional and accurate.
Represent the integrity and services provided.
If your organization requested grant funds for print advertisements, a copy of the advertisement must be reviewed and approved by the department before printing. Advertising must be reviewed and approved each grant period.
If advertisements are not approved by the department prior to being printed, grant funds for print advertisements will not be reimbursed.
If your organization requested advertising funds but does not plan to use print advertisements, provide a detailed description of your marketing plan.
If your organization will be using grant funds for advertising, you can submit print advertisements for review at any time, but they must be reviewed and approved before printing and using them. You will receive an confirmation once advertising has been approved.

12. Payment Obligations to Government Agencies
We will not distribute grant funds if we are collecting a past-due balance your organization owes.
We review department records before we reimburse grant funds. During our review, we will verify your organization is meeting payment obligations to government agencies, thereby preventing revenue recapture or offset of grant funds. We will not distribute grant funds if we are collecting a past-due balance your organization owes to government organizations.

13. Reimbursement of Grant Funds
Guidelines for FY20 grant expenses:
Purchase, construction, repair, or rehabilitation of any building, vehicle, or any portion thereof is not allowed.
Purchase of gift cards for volunteer recognition is not allowed.
Grant funds may be used to purchase volunteer recognition items but are limited to $10 per person. 
Grant funds used to purchase food and beverages for volunteers are limited to $500 per organization for the grant period. Alcohol will not be reimbursed.
Review the RFP for a full list of allowable and unallowable grant expenses.
The guidelines for FY20 grant expenses include: (as stated on slide).
These are only some of the guidelines. Please be sure to review the RFP for a full list of allowable and prohibited grant expenses.

14. Reimbursement of Grant Funds
Request reimbursement of grant funds:
Up to half of your grant award February 14, 2020 (when the progress report is due)
Up to the second half of your grant award May 1, 2020 (when the final report is due)
Before August 31, 2020
The department reimburses grant funds, meaning your organization must have incurred the expenses before requesting reimbursement of grant funds. The expenses must have been incurred between October 1, 2019 (or when the contract has been signed by all parties) and August 31, 2020.
When can organizations request reimbursement of grant funds?
New this year: there is a change from previous years as to when you can request reimbursement of grant funds.
For FY20, your organization may submit reimbursement requests at the following times:
When the progress report is due, February 14, 2020.
When the final report is due, May 1, 2020.
Before August 31, 2020.
You may request reimbursement for up to half of your grant award when the progress report is due and the second half when the final report is due. Any remaining grant award amounts may be requested through August 31, 2020.
We will not accept reimbursement requests after August 31, 2020.
Note: Organizations receiving $50,000 or more in grant funds will have a monitoring visit conducted before final reimbursement is approved.

15. Reimbursement of Grant Funds
Reimbursement request expense tracking sheet
Complete each time you request reimbursement
We will not accept requests without it
Include supporting documentation
Organizations will need to complete a reimbursement request expense tracking sheet that will detail the specific expenses of the reimbursement request. The FY20 reimbursement request expense tracking sheet is available on our grant webpage.
Organizations will have to include supporting documentation for all expenses within the reimbursement request such as payroll records, timesheets, itemized receipts, invoices or purchase orders, mileage logs, payment records, etc. to prove expenses are reasonable, necessary, and allowable within the guidelines of the grant contract.
General Ledgers alone are not adequate documentation.
Salaries – Include names, position, pay rate, and time allocated to the tax program (if they are involved in other functions of your organization)
Acceptable documentation: Payroll Records, Labor Allocation Detail Reports, timesheets, etc.
Include receipts, cancelled checks, or a bank statement for each expense showing that it has been paid.
Documentation should be organized so that it flows in the order that it is listed on the Reimbursement Request Expense Tracking Sheet so it is easy to review.
Highlight/circle dates and expenses
Organize into one PDF (or as few as possible if a large document)
Requests for reimbursement without proper supporting documentation will not be accepted.

16. Required Minnesota Tax Training
One representative from your organization must attend one of the following required three hour Minnesota tax training webinars:
Tuesday, December 10, 2019 – 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 19, 2019 – 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020 – 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
You must have one representative attend for each free tax site that receives grant funding.
One representative from your organization must attend a required three hour Minnesota tax training webinar. Your organization must have one representative attend for each free tax preparation site you receive grant funding for. The representative for each site should either provide training to your volunteers or be available at that site for technical guidance during the filing season.
There will be a training webinar on Tuesday, December 10, from 9:00 a.m. to noon, one on Thursday, December 19, from noon to 3:00 p.m., and one on Tuesday, January 14 from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Each representative only needs to attend one session but we are providing a few options to ensure attendance.
Watch for an with webinar registration details later this fall.
If your organization does not attend the required training, we will not reimburse your organization for grant funds, and you will not receive grant funds for next fiscal year.

17. Deadlines and Due Dates
Progress reports due February 14, 2020
Final reports due May 1, 2020
New this year: all grantees must submit progress reports and final reports
New this Year: Progress Reports are required for all organizations who are awarded grant funds.
FY20 Progress reports will be due February 14, after training for the 2019 tax season has ended and a few weeks into the filing season.
The goal is for organizations to report more specifically on preparations for the filing season on the progress report and report on how the entire filing season went on the final report.
We are requiring progress reports for all organizations this year so that we can capture some important information from all grantees, such as how it went recruiting multilingual volunteers and the languages they speak, so we can continue making this better for everyone.
Final reports are required for all organizations that are awarded grant funds.
FY20 Final reports will be due May 1, 2020.
You can still submit reimbursement requests until August 31, 2020.
You can always submit progress and final reports before their due dates if you feel like you can adequately report on the questions in the reports.
We moved the due date of the final report to May 1st to allow the Department time to evaluate the performance of the grantees and the successes of the grant cycle before drafting the RFP for the next grant cycle. If your site has summer hours, we realize your final report will not reflect returns prepared after April. We have access to this information.

18. Monitoring Visits New grantees Advance payments Random selection
Grants over $50,000
A monitoring visit and financial reconciliation will be conducted in person or by phone during the tax filing season for new grantees, organizations receiving advance payments, random selection, and for grants over $50,000.
A letter will be sent out in February notifying you if your organization has been selected for a monitoring visit. You will have 30 days to provide documentation showing how your organization used grant funds. Once I have reviewed the financials, I will schedule the monitoring visit for March or April, when your site is open. During the visit, I will observe your volunteer tax preparation services, learn more about your successes and challenges, and address any questions or concerns.

19. Questions?
At this time I will take any questions you have. Submit your questions through the chat feature and send them to all participants or to Sarah Bjorklund.
All questions received during this webinar are included in the Fiscal Year 2020 Grant – Frequently Asked Questions found under Resources on the grant webpage.

20. Survey After the webinar, you will be directed to a survey
Your feedback is appreciated!
After this webinar you will be directed to a survey. You will receive a warning screen with a message to make sure the website content is from a trusted source. You can hit continue to proceed to the survey.
We ask that all participants complete it. Your feedback is appreciated.

21. Thank you! Jessica Delcid 651-556-3052 or 1-800-818-6871 (toll-free)
If you have additional questions relating to the grant you can send an to the address above.
The PowerPoint and all questions and answers from this webinar will be posted on the grant website.