Teleconference to celebrate the end of the tax season
Need help with your tax season data?
Coalition affiliates receive Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grants
Despite devastation, Biloxi completes more tax returns than ever
Affiliates in the news
Program profile: Fargo Moorhead
Advocacy updates
New resources
Calendar

Teleconference to celebrate the end of the tax season

The National Community Tax Coalition will hold our annual “Celebrating the End of the Tax Season” conference call on Thursday, May 4, 2006 at 3-4:30pm Eastern; 2-3:30pm Central; 1-2:30pm Mountain; 12 noon-1:30pm Pacific. 

We have worked with many groups over the last few months and learned about some exciting activities. This session is an opportunity for affiliates and partners to highlight accomplishments and share challenges faced during the season. This is also a great opportunity to look towards the future and begin thinking about new directions and approaches.   

We hope you will join us on this free call as we learn more about the use of stored value cards, split refunds, serving individuals with disabilities and preliminary tax preparation data from the Internal Revenue Service. Register for this conference call now!   

To join the call use the following information: Call in number:  (563) 843-7000 and Access Code: 163625#

Need help with your tax season data?

Trying to pull together reports on how many tax returns you did at your site, or the value of refunds? Use TaxWise? Try using the data tool that the Coalition provides free as part of its National Program Survey. You can use it independently of the Survey, or to pull data to include in the Survey. And thanks to the five programs who have already completed the National Program Survey. Remember, we are offering a free T-shirt for every tenth survey completed!

Coalition affiliates receive Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grants

The National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina E. Olson, recently announced that the Internal Revenue Service has awarded $8 million in matching grants to Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITCs) for 2006. LITCs represent low income taxpayers involved in tax disputes with the IRS or provide education on tax rights and responsibilities to taxpayers for whom English is a second language or who have limited English proficiency.

These affiliates of the National Community Tax Coalition received grants:

• Accounting Aid Society, MI
• New Life Corporation, CT
• Midwest Tax Clinic, IL
• United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, AZ

Despite devastation, Biloxi completes more tax returns than ever

Despite starting from ground zero after the devastating effects of Hurricane Rita, the Biloxi EITC Coalition dramatically increased the number of tax returns prepared this season. By April 17, they had e-filed over 1,000 returns, compared to 690 last year. In addition, they filed an as-yet-uncounted number of paper returns which allowed taxpayers who lost their jobs due to the hurricane to use their previous year’s income statement.

In our Program Profile of April, we incorrectly stated that “several houses” in Biloxi were damaged by the hurricane. We meant “several hundred thousand.”

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Sites to help poor claim earned income tax credits

"More than $111 million in federal Earned Income Tax Credit refunds might remain unclaimed in Cook County a week before the deadline for filing returns, a non-profit tax-preparation group reports.

"The Center for Economic Progress, which operates 35 free tax-advice sites around the state for low-income families and individuals, estimates that every federal tax dollar returned to Illinois is spent 2.4 more times on various consumer items. That means the state stands to lose tens of millions of dollars if 125,000 EITC eligible taxpayers fail to file their tax returns this year." April 10 story in Chicago Sun-Time.

Tax refund loans cost Ohio a bundle

"As the federal income tax deadline nears, be careful about running to the nearest tax shop to get your taxes done. Why? Well, many paid preparers can take a large chunk of your refund by charging preparation fees and persuading you to purchase refund-anticipation loans and insurance on your return.

"In 2004, more than 500,000 low-income families in Ohio went to a paid preparer and 300,000 purchased a high-interest refund-anticipation loan. They spent an average of more than $270. A recent report for Policy Matters Ohio, "Credit Where It's Due," documented that more than $100 million left the hands of working families in Ohio because of paid preparation and refund-anticipation loans." April 8 story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Programs teach savings to ease poverty

On Monday April 24th, the work of Tulsa’s Community Action Program, specifically around asset building initiatives, was featured in a story on NPR's Morning Edition. This story is part of a series called "Fighting Poverty in America" that is focusing on various anti-poverty programs and efforts around the nation. Read or listen to the story.

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Imaginative EITC rural outreach: Fargo Moorhead

Imagine you are in a rural area and interested in helping more people receive the EITC. You look around and see lots of small towns with no nonprofit agencies. You observe that nobody is doing any EITC outreach, there are no materials, no infrastructure, no history to build on. How do you get started? Who can you partner with? What do you aim for when the few free tax preparation sites have little surplus capacity? Read about how the Red River EITC Coalition tackled these problems.

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1. “A Tax Credit or a Handout”: In this New York Times Op-Ed piece, Dorothy Brown blasts Congress for funding and pushing the IRS to target low-income taxpayers with audits rather than doing the work to simplify the credits to reduce burden and error. She argues strongly against the notion that low-income tax credits are a form of welfare (introduced into our lexicon by Bill Clinton). Interestingly, she never uses the term “EITC”.

2. H & R Block settles $39 million RAL suit in Illinois: The tax preparation giant has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit on refund anticipation loans (RALs) in Illinois. However, despite this outcome and the mounting pressure from consumer advocacy groups and others concerned about RALs, H&R Block does not plan to stop offering these high-interest loans. (April 21, 2006)

3. Debate brewing in Congress over Free Internet e-Filing: Sens. Akaka and Bingaman have co-sponsored a bill, S. 2550, supported by consumer groups that would provide taxpayers with free direct electronic filing through the IRS website without involving a third party intermediary. Currently, taxpayers must go through a commercial third party website in order to file electronically. Some taxpayers can use the IRS-established Free File program to file electronically for free, but at the cost of being pitched various paid products such as state tax return preparation and review by a tax “professional.” Certain members of the House, led by Republican Congresswoman Melissa Hart (PA-4) and supported by the tax preparation and computer industries, are promoting a bill to explicitly prevent just such services. (For full text of these two bills go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and type in the bill number, as in “S. 2550” or “H.R. 5114”.) Several national consumer groups have sent a letter of support for the Akaka/Bingaman bill and issued a press statement about their support plus criticism of HR 5114.

4. IRS Commissioner Testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on the 2006 Income Tax Filing Season and discusses Free File Alliance Agreement : Mark Everson reflected on the advantages of the free file system that makes tax filing easier and reduces the burden on taxpayers. However, he also acknowledged the concerns critics have raised regarding the aggressive marketing of RALs by some Free File Alliance members. Read his testimony.

5. CBPP Report on the EITC: In his report on tax reform and poverty, Jason Furman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discusses the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit and ways to improve it. Further, Furman notes the hazards of making the dividend and capital gains tax cuts permanent and the dangerous precedent it may set for making future tax cuts permanent without off-setting their costs.

6. Lawmakers grill Mark Everson on proposed disclosure regulations, privatization of collections, and EITC audits and refund freezes: On March 29 lawmakers questioned IRS Commissioner Mark Everson about proposed return disclosure regulations which would allow tax preparers to sell taxpayer information to third parties, and about the use of private debt collectors, who will track down taxpayers who agree they owe taxes but have not paid. According to Dustin Stamper of Tax Analysts, Representative Olver (D-MA), minority leader of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, HUD, Judiciary and District of Columbia, “criticized Everson for spending too much time going after low-income taxpayers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, arguing that the big money is elsewhere.” The complete transcript of the hearing is yet to be released.

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On the Coalition Website

Outreach

Outreach Poster for EITC [PDF, 2MB, posted 4/19/06]
This story-based poster that ran in the Philadelphia Daily News could be a model for EITC outreach through print media. Provided by the Campaign for Working Families.

Quality

The Q Word [DOC, 90KB, posted 4/18/06]
Comments on quality issues gleaned from experiences at tax preparation sites by Barbara DelBene, Senior Training Specialist at the Center for Economic Progress. This week: last word, in cartoons. Provided by the National Community Tax Coalition.

The Q Word [DOC, 90KB, posted 4/11/06]
Comments on quality issues gleaned from experiences at tax preparation sites by Barbara DelBene, Senior Training Specialist at the Center for Economic Progress. This week: finishing the season. Provided by the National Community Tax Coalition.

The Q Word [DOC, 90KB, posted 4/04/06]
Comments on quality issues gleaned from experiences at tax preparation sites by Barbara DelBene, Senior Training Specialist at the Center for Economic Progress. This week: the end-of-season harder returns. Provided by the National Community Tax Coalition

Financial Education, Asset Building

Direct Benefits Card Report [DOC, 135 KB, posted 4/25/06]
This card is a Chase product introduced in 2006 and piloted at several Center for Economic Progress tax sites. The card allows for direct deposit of federal benefits, including tax returns. Provided by the Center for Economic Progress.

Flyer for a Credit Report Review Event [PDF, posted 4/5/06]
Provided by CASH Coalition of Chittenden County.

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May

Thursday May 4 “Celebrating the End of the Tax Season” Conference Call at 3-4:30pm Eastern; 2-3:30pm Central; 1-2:30pm Mountain; 12 noon-1:30pm Pacific.  Read the details or register now.

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