NCTC reports over $666 million in refunds

Thanks to the 120 programs which reported their data through NCTC’s National Program Survey, we know that affiliates completed over 464 million federal tax returns in 2007, and returned over $666 million to working families. Almost $244 million of this was from the EITC.

The average taxpayer had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $17,191 and received a refund of $1,190. Over 1,500 volunteers at 88 sites provided free services to low-income taxpayers.

The 464,854 federal returns reported is about 50% of the IRS total of over 900,000 community-based VITA returns in 2007. We estimate the entire community-based VITA field returned about $1.3 billion.

Key survey data	Aggregates
Number 2007 Federal returns	464,854
Value 2007 Federal refund	$549,640,964
Number 2007 State returns	199,395
Value of 2007 State refunds	$79,554,819
Number of 2006-2004 prior year returns	33,033
Value of 2006-2004 prior year refunds	$29,509,330
Number of 2007 local and other returns	23,809
Value of 2007 local and other refunds	$7,681,448
Number of total returns	721,091
Value of total refunds	$666,386,561
Number 2007 EITC returns	98,696
Value 2007 EITC refunds	$243,966,814
Number 2007 Child Tax Credit	48,623
Value 2007 Child Tax Credit	$58,546,626
Percent of direct deposits	44%
Average AGI	$17,191
Average 2007 taxpayer refund	$1,190
Number of tax sites	88
Number of volunteers	1578

NCTC staff are working on a comparison of the data across several years, and will distribute a report on the survey to all contributors in December. We greatly appreciate the time you took to send us your data.

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Program Locator updated

Need to find a free tax preparation program in another city or state? NCTC has updated its National Program Locator, based on data submitted through the National Program Survey. If you have more detailed site contact information on your website that you us to link to, email Don Wedd, dwedd@centerforprogress.org.

New partnership to serve disabled taxpayers

Milwaukee Asset Building Coalition are partnering with Independence First and Goodwill Industries as an initiative to work with organizations who serve the disabled.  One of those agencies will provide training to volunteers in assisting disabled taxpayers effectively, and a Mobile Team will be going to those locations to provide free income tax help.  For more information, contact Nayoakee Parker, nparker@cr-sdc.org.

Maryland boosts state EITC

During Maryland’s special legislative session that just ended, Maryland expanded the refundable portion of the state's Earned Income Credit from 20 percent to 25 percent of the federal credit.  In addition, the legislature voted to allow low-wage workers without children living at home to claim the credit, which will lead to a refundable increase of as much as $103 per worker.  Prior to this, childless workers were not eligible for the MD EIC.

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Have you thought of this?

In the National Program Survey, programs were asked what they tried in 2007 that was new or unique. Some of these responses may give you ideas for your own program.

• Scheduled appointments and offered daytime hours at our St. Paul-Midway office resulting in a 40% increase in taxpayers served.
• Department of Social Service hired a full time staff person to be with us on site, and offered part time services of another staff person to make appointments for taxpayers.
• Because of our increased attention to quality assurance, our rejection rate decreased over 50 percent to an 8 percent rejection rate
• Secured $150,000 in local government funding for DC work.
• Growth in the number of filers who took advantage of the Smart CD, a certificate of deposit offered by the Franklin Savings Bank (adding $100 from Casey Family Services after six months, an additional $100 from the bank after one year to help families save for homeownership or college),
• Successfully partnered with the City of Portland to provide city-based benefits to our customers.   
• Partnered with INTEL who provided computers and printers for sites.
• We are currently conducting a series of workshops based on results from surveys completed by taxpayers. The workshops focus on financial needs, self-employment tax issues, ITIN applications, and asset development strategies. As the clients self-identified which topics they are interested in, we have had good response.
• Signed up 275 families for OK Higher Learning Assistance Program-Free College Tuition
• We partnered with some community agencies in northern Virginia to provide on-site credit score checks and credit counseling as well as referrals. 
• We had a 40 percent increase in the attendance at our "It's Your Money" dinners this season. These are financial education dinners that we offer four times throughout the season that we use to encourage clients to participate in further asset building services.
• We chose six of our San Francisco sites to also act as Financial Advice Information and Referral sites. These sites are testing the model of engaging the tax preparation clients in year round asset building activities with their organization.
• Beehive and Intuit's TurboTax Freedom Edition to coach clients on how to file their own taxes.
• Partnered with class at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business:  120 students get three hours credit and must volunteer 60 hours.
• Outreach efforts through a cable TV monthly newsmagazine show
• Our winning strategy has focused primarily on accessing Haitian radio and television media outlets. Last year a series of 14 shows, aired on Island TV, covered various tax and financial literacy issues. We are observing a progressive change in our constituents’ mind about their responsibilities as taxpayers.
• This year we partnered with BeehiveMiami.org as our on-line Prosperity Center. BeehiveMiami.org is an online tool which allows individuals to prepare and submit their own taxes as well as links them to other services, public benefits and literature around personal development and self-sufficiency.
• Honored for the second year in a row by the Annie E Casey Foundation for best practices and procedures in quality
• I believe one of our successes is that Kansas City Kansas Community College offers a three hour credit class.  Two credit hours are earned for attending the tax law training, and one credit hour is earned for volunteering as a VITA volunteer. 
• Grant funding for awards dinner and recognition of volunteers
• We were pleased to have implemented some of the learning's such as the Quality Control Survey that we presented in last years NCTC Conference in Los Angeles.
• Google AdWords attracted hundreds of filers
• We implemented an individual financial counseling program.  The majority of the clients are coming from transitional housing programs that mandate participation.  We are averaging 10 new clients per month.  These clients will almost certainly utilize our tax preparation service next year.
• We had experienced tax preparers switch off doing screening and they were able to answer numerous questions before being assigned to a preparer.
• Pilot workplace program was a great success.
• We have one employer operated site which is successful and very strong support from local colleges and universities. 
• KeyBank provided free check cashing vouchers for our tax customers.  Taxpayers could cash their refund checks at any KeyBank branch in three counties.  These were extremely popular.
• Expanded our appointment only sites through the Public Library System.
• The number of repeat customers who are beginning or continuing to use some of the strategies that we showed them in the previous years.
• We were able to expand the number of Western Union agent locations that displayed the EITC informational brochures.
• Beginning Financial Stability Partnership with local United Way to increase community involvement

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Program Services Coordinator, DC

Community Tax Aid, Inc seeks a Program Services Coordinator to support the needs of free tax preparation service locations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.  For more details, email jobopenings@communitytaxdc.org