ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Free tax service helps Chattanooga residents

By: Clint Cooper
(Contact)

Included in this article

Dr. John Hayes

A Chattanooga single mother was told by a local tax refund service that she would be charged more than $450 this year to have her tax returns prepared so she could receive about $1,500 in Earned Income Tax Credit.

Before she agreed to the deal, she learned about a free tax preparation service offered by a partnership that included United Way of Greater Chattanooga’s 2-1-1 service, the Chattanooga Urban League, the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and the City of Chattanooga.

“(Her return) took me 10 minutes to do,” said Mona Geer, a senior accountant at the United Way who volunteers as a tax preparer for the program.

James McKissic, vice president of programs at the Urban League, said outreach efforts to educate the public about the service paid off.

“We got to people before they gave up and went other places,” he said.

The partnership completed 66 percent more tax returns in 2008 than it did in 2007, according to the agencies involved. Among the 2008 tax returns was the one for the single mother.

OUTREACH EFFORTS

One reason for the increase in returns was the big push to get word of the program out into the community, said Dr. John Hayes, self-sufficiency director for the local United Way.

Building stable lives — helping people become economically or socially independent, or at least stable enough to meet their needs and increase their income and savings — is a focus area for the organization, Dr. Hayes said. It also is a primary push for the Tennessee Alliance for Financial Independence, a state coalition with some of the same partners, he said.

Despite the outreach efforts, “lots of people don’t know about the free tax service,” Mr. McKissic said.

Many go through preparers such as H&R Block, while some buy tax software. Others, convinced they need their money soon, use businesses that charge high fees for rapid refunds, he said.

Some people don’t take advantage of the service because they have temporary jobs, aren’t working and don’t believe they qualify, or they’ve moved three or four times or haven’t reported income in the past and are afraid the government will catch up to them, Dr. Hayes said.

“We try to get them to realize what’s possible,” he said. “We want to try to take them out of the excluded category. Sometimes it takes a lot of convincing.”

The federal government’s $150 billion economic stimulus package, which will send checks to those who file their taxes, also sparked people to have their returns filled out by the program, he said. Individuals and families, even if they didn’t owe taxes, had to file a return to get stimulus checks, Dr. Hayes said.

In addition to popular locations such as Northgate Mall, Eastgate Town Center and the Department of Human Services, the free tax service by IRS-trained preparers also was offered at Chattanooga Cares, the Aim Center, Orange Grove Center, Signal Centers, Goodwill and senior housing complexes, agency officials said.

“We had more sites and were more accessible to more people,” Dr. Hayes said. “We gave those individuals with disabilities the ability to get to the sites that were friendly to them.”

HELPING OUT

Mrs. Geer, the volunteer tax preparer, saw 91 people this year, 18 of whom qualified for Earned Income Tax Credit, she said. She saw only 35 in 2007, she said. She works three nights a week at the Lone Oak Community Center and Saturday afternoons at Alexian Village, both on Signal Mountain.

According to the IRS, the Earned Income Tax Credit — established in 1975 — is the largest and most-effective federal aid program for low- and moderate-income families.

Annually, 5 million people, half of whom are children, escape poverty by receiving the credit, according to agency numbers. About $39 billion is returned to low- and moderate-income workers each year, IRS records show.

IRS officials estimate 4 million eligible people fail to file for the credit, forfeiting $2.9 billion a year.

According to United Way of America and IRS data, local United Way agencies participate in more than 40 percent of the nation’s 271 Earned Income Tax Credit campaigns annually.

Comments