Call for workshop proposals

The National Community Tax Coalition is calling for workshop presentations for its 6th Biennial Conference “Building Prosperity for Working Families”.  The 2007 conference will take place in Denver, Colorado on October 1st and 2nd, 2007 at the Adams Mark Hotel. 

Initial workshop presentation proposals are due no later than Wednesday, May 9, 2007.  Read more details.

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Mobile tax site returns half a million dollars

Under contract from Children's Service's Council of Broward County, Hispanic Unity of Florida rented a 34 foot camper/recreational vehicle for 6 ½ weeks and equipped it with laptops and printers. For 39 days, this unit traveled with HUF staff and IRS-certified volunteers throughout Broward County, Florida, providing tax services in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole.

The number of taxpayers served by the mobile site this year increased by 66 percent over last year. 380 taxpayers filed returns for refunds in the amount of $497,744.

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The Benefits Bank serves 800

That year The Benefit Bank was able to help 800 clients in primarily just two cities―Philadelphia and Miami. Over 6,100 clients were served in 11 states plus the District of Columbia―returning more than $7,763,000 in tax refunds (including $3,374,000 in EITC dollars). The federal tax returns filed represent a 95% increase over this time last year.

William Porro from the City of Miami reports that the software is ”easy train on and use, and it assisted the city’s free tax preparation program with a more holistic economic approach. When the connection with the State Department of Children and Families is completed, it will save the residents an enormous amount of time and effort.” The Benefit Bank is used to prepare taxes and at the same time, to screen taxpayers for other benefits (such as food stamps and Medicaid) they are eligible for. Their benefits applications will be sent directly into the State Department of Children and Families database with the push of a button.

With 10 new sites trained in The Benefit Bank this year in addition to the City of Miami's 13 Neighborhood Enhancement Team offices,the number of people served grew 50%, the value of EITC increased 25%, and total refund IRS refunds increased 30%. As well, clients are discovering their eligibility for an average of an additional $3,000 in benefits.

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Advocacy victory on paystub RALS

Pacific Capital Bancorp, the holding company for Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, recently announced it would stop offering the Pre-File and Holiday Loan products. These are the loans made by Jackson Hewitt to consumers based on their pay stubs, to be covered eventually by the tax refund. Earlier HSBC announced it would stop making paystub RALs and advocates have been told that JP Morgan Chase will not be making these loans next year either. With SBBT pulling out, it appears that this brief foray into payday-style lending by tax preparers is over.

Last November National Consumer Law Center and Consumer Federation of America issued a scathing report about paystub RALs and called on the Comptroller of the Currency to prohibit its banks from participating. An action group made up took this fight to the road, picketing Jackson Hewitt's New Jersey headquarters and advocating directly to the banks involved and the Comptroller of the Currency. Community Legal Services in Philadelphia and Campaign for Working Families did a hidden camera shopping trip to tax preparers for their pay stub RALs, resulting in news coverage.

Mark up another victory for consumer advocates against predatory small loans!