More than $3.89 billion in federal income taxes have been returned to those with modest wages as a result of free tax preparation services offered by IRS-certified volunteers in 2014. A new breakdown of national IRS data shows that tax preparers at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) sites across the nation helped more than 3.2 million taxpayers make the most of their returns during the 2014 tax season. VITA programs offer lower-income taxpayers a free alternative to more costly, and often predatory, tax preparation services. VITA sites are IRS-sponsored and are closely monitored by the agency, giving them a far lower error rate than many self- and paid- tax preparation services.