Few taxpayers split refunds

A total of 1,471 refunds were split by VITA programs during the recently completed tax season. This is a tiny proportion of the more than 1 million returns completed by VITA sites.

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TV presenter to be Mistress of Ceremonies at NCTC national conference

Shaul Turner from Fox TV – Denver, Colorado will be the mistress of ceremonies for the Building Prosperity for Working Families Conference to be held in at the Adams Mark Hotel, October 1-2, 2007.  Mark your calendars now.

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How did the tax season go?

We asked Tax Roundtable listserv members for some preliminary feedback tax filing season. Here is a summary from their responses.

Recurring issues:

• Unable to meet taxpayer demand in February
• How to implement preference for families over single filers
• Mid season training for volunteers
• Extra time spent on return reviews reduced number of taxpayers served

Lafayette Urban Ministry, IN

• Returns up 25%
• Volunteers from University Accounting Association
• Problems with networking via Windows XP Pro
• Could not handle taxpayer demand in February
• High number of bank accounts opened for direct deposit
• Outreach to families that sign up for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona

• Returns down 5%
• Due to shortage of volunteers early in season, result of increasing training demand on volunteers
• IRS quality review process increased time spent on each return
• Offering more services without funding for additional staff, so took time to recruit unpaid staff (including a Peace Corps fellow)
• Move to TaxWise Online met with resistance from returning volunteers, some of whom dropped out
• Schedule C program well received

Delaware County Asset Development Group

• Number of returns up slightly
• Changes in personnel a major factor in the number of returns completed
• Split refund numbers minimal

Cuyahoga EITC Coalition, Cleveland OH

• Refunds up by 67%
• Outreach targeted child day care centers and religious institutions
• Stable funding from county and elsewhere
• Repeat customers and repeat volunteers
• Problem with sites not able to meet demand early in the season
• How to reach families with children more than just single filers
• Very happy with One Community system, a server that stores and files the returns for all of our electronic sites. It allows us to do taxes from any location provided we have Internet access.

Community Action Project. Tulsa OK

• Fewer returns, with 2 fewer sites this year
• Funding cuts
• Savings Bond pilot that we did with D2D sold almost 200 bonds at only one site
  At one site we had a special programs coordinator who worked just to help clients sign up for financial ed. classes, credit repair, bank savings accounts, free tuition applications, etc.  This proved to be totally successful since that site had clients signed up at a rate of more than triple the other sites.
• Two sites shopped by TIGTA inspectors and passed both with correct returns.

Foundation Communities, Austin TX

• 32% increase in the number of returns we prepare
• Our results are most impacted by year-round grassroots outreach and local TV and radio coverage
• Our volunteers really liked the mid-season continuing education classes that focused on the types of returns you see in March and April (prior years, amended returns, Schedule Cs, people who owe, etc.).
• A lot of resistance from volunteers and staff who did not want to promote for-profit banking institutions or offer bank services to our clients.  Those volunteers and staff had heard too many horror stories from clients about fees.
• We did two reviews of every tax return and it was frightening to see how many errors weren’t caught by the tax preparer or the first reviewer.  We quickly saw that it was necessary to restrict who could do quality review – being a certified tax preparer did not make someone qualified to do quality review. 
• Sending individual volunteers an email notice of each error (when a return rejects or when an error is caught on the second review) was helpful in reducing errors.

Just Harvest, Pittsburgh, PA

• Numbers were slightly down
• Time spent on return review before clients left the site reduced the number of returns completed
• New initiative to help self-employed taxpayers was time-intensive
• Completed more returns for each taxpayer including state property tax rebates and local services tax refund forms. 
• Assembled a good coalition of existing VITA sites in Western PA and have joined together for outreach, training of volunteers and client referrals.  This has led to less work for individual site coordinators and better quality service for clients. 
• We kept track of where errors were found during the review process and had an additional preparer training in early March to address some common errors.
• Created a checklist for self-employed taxpayers to fill out before coming to their appointment.  This helped them understand their business better and gather the correct information to file an accurate return.

Harford Asset Building Collaborative, CT

• 10% increase in filers served, our growth is slower than we had projected for the year. Positive outcomes are the result of the wonderful contributions of partner organizations, as well as SPEC, CAHS (our data collectors and campaign evaluators) and our dedicated volunteers.
• First way of marketing and outreach made effective use of PSA’s, billboards in two of our target neighborhoods, presentations to organizations who work with the same population we are trying to serve, targeted neighborhood outreach utilizing neighborhood ambassadors and youth which ultimately led to word of mouth referrals. Did not not focus enough on the second wave of outreach mid-season
• Addition of sites, bringing us to 18, stretched our resources thin
• Issues with volunteers, both getting them to training and then getting those who attended training certified.
• New Budget Coaching Program trained approximately 50 of the 70 coaches who have been recruited and have identified nearly 200 families interested in the program.
• Opened 60 savings accounts for tax filers through our relationship with the Hartford Federal Credit Union.

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