2018 Virtual Post-Tax Season Conference Call Center on Budget & Policy Priorities Get It Back Campaign June 14th, 2018

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1 2018 Virtual Post-Tax Season Conference Call Center on Budget & Policy Priorities Get It Back Campaign June 14th, 2018 Part I: Check-In What is one tip you can share that has helped your tax site run smoothly? Part I: 2018 Tax Season Highlight What are some of your 2018 tax season highlights? Suzanne Yeomans, United Way of the Wine Country, Santa Rosa, CA Had a DACA client who is a single mother of three, file taxes, enter the Save Your Refund sweepstakes, and win the $25,000 grand prize last year. Recommended the same client for an opportunity this year to advocate for the California EITC and the impact of having both the federal and the state EITC. o She gave her statement in front of state Assembly members and shared how the tax credits positively impacted her dream of going back to school to become a neonatal nurse to help other mothers with premature babies. Tina Sherrard, Ivy Tech Community College, Bloomington, IL Adjusted schedule around to allow more flexibility to serve more walkins and drop-offs, especially when other sites were full. Tamara Kreigh, United Way of Metro Nashville, Nashville, TN Elizabeth Cervantes, Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF), Commerce, CA: Partner with a college or university. Zade Haobsh, Grow Brooklyn, New York, NY: Feed the volunteers: snacks for short shifts and lunch for long shifts. Jeanette Hopkins, City of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX: Assign quality review to one person. Suzanne Yeomans, UW Wine Country, Santa Rosa, CA: Recruit veteran volunteers who can encourage their friends and family to join them. Teresa Hinze, Community Tax Aid, Washington, DC: Hold brown bag sessions at employers. Lynn Weckworth, UW Northern New Jersey, Bridgewater, NJ: Partner with accounting professors at local colleges who can recruit and train students. Tina Sherrard, Ivy Tech Community College, Bloomington, IL: advertisements and reach out to prior year volunteers. Darren Liddell, The Financial Clinic, Brooklyn, NY: Switch to drop-off taxes model when TaxSlayer is down.

2 Partnered with Family and Children s Service to have a Tennessee healthcare navigator at VITA sites to help clients with any health coverage concerns, including ones without Form 1095-A. o The navigator also did checkups for clients who owed money due to health care premiums or didn t pay enough, to prevent them from having a balance next year. Jean Bowen, Center for Community Resources, Butler, PA Have five accessible sites for VITA program. o Use phone interpreters to assist clients who aren t fluent in English during tax season. Teamed up with the new southwestern Pennsylvania VA medical center to do tax returns. Partnered with the Association for Retired Citizens (ARC) which has sheltered workshops that employ individuals with intellectual disabilities. o Filed 58 sheltered workshop employee tax returns in two counties. Ana Ceballos, Hispanic Unity of Florida, Hollywood, FL Included cultural sensitivity and competence training for VITA volunteers before the tax season to prepare volunteers to work with clients from different backgrounds. Part II: Tax Sites and Clientele Changes -- Immigrants What is the atmosphere around tax-filing for immigrant clients at your sites? Are you seeing more questions and concerns from immigrant clients? With the recent political climate and changes in immigration policies, we ve heard that clientele has changed at some sites and that some have expressed concerns and fears, particularly from immigrant clients. Rachel Gregson, Community Action Partnership of Utah, Murray, UT Haven t seen too many changes in the number of immigration clients but is seeing a population aging out of the traditional VITA. Growth came from free taxes but the walk-in traffic at our VITA sites tends to be older clients since some local AARP sites have closed. Have several sites across 5 counties that serve high percentage of immigrant population. Most of our immigrant clients always want to go back to the same site and preparer. Sent postcards to previous filers and invited them to go back to the site to file taxes. Clients ask if they must use their real name or address. o Some ask to have refund deposited in their children s bank account.

3 Many immigrants are afraid ICE will come get them if they file taxes to get tax credits. Had 8 families that had over $55,000 in returns together but were too afraid to file taxes. Had lot of homeless shelters would offer their addresses. Lynn Weckworth, United Way of Northern New Jersey, Bridgewater, NJ Most immigrant clients continue to file taxes because they know that the uninterrupted history of filing taxes would be helpful when they can legitimize their citizenship status. Shelby Gonzales, Senior Policy Analyst at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Public charge is a policy that is used by immigration officials to determine the likeliness of people, who seek to Enter the U.S. or are trying to adjust their citizenship status, to depend on the government for their subsistence. o Refugees and asylee aren t subject to this eligibility test Immigration officers look at the person s use and dependability on public benefit programs such as TANF, SSI, long term care in nursing home at government s expense, and tax benefits (specifically the refundable tax credits). The leaked rule is a proposal draft that would review people s participation in federal programs such as: Medicaid, SNAP, ACA subsidies, refundable EITC and CTC, and more. o Will also look at dependents use of these benefits which could negatively impact parents who are trying to become U.S. permanent residents. Many families, especially immigrants, would forego the benefits and tax credits because they re fearful of being separated from their families. People could easily be confused by the complex rules and believe the new policy could apply to them. CBPP a part of a much larger campaign that s headed by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). o Preparing to write public comments if /when this rule is ready for comment. o We want you to have the right tools and information you need to address your clients concerns and provide reassurances to the immigrant families. Want training on social/emotional appropriateness for handling immigrant families. Seen situations where mom and kids with social security cards will file as the head of household to get tax credits but husband with ITIN will file as single at another site. Seen a lot of couples file their taxes as married when they re not legally married. Want to be able to ask clarifying questions without being offensive. Use IRS tool to send out fliers to advertise ITIN renewals before next tax season. Part II: Tax Sites and Clientele Changes --Uber/Lyft Drivers

4 How have you handled the increase in Uber & Lyft tax filers? Ana Ceballos, Hispanic Unity of Florida, Hollywood, FL Seen a significant increase in Uber and Lyft drivers and need help train volunteers. Leticia Paterlini, Boston Tax Help Coalition, Boston, MA Tried to have an Uber and Lyft Tax Day. Darren Liddell, The Financial Clinic, Brooklyn, NY Seen an increase in Uber and Lyft drivers and the need to educate these clients. Let clients know that providing water for riders could be tax deductible. Developed a business worksheet for clients to maximize the tax preparer s time. Tamara Kreigh, VITA Program with United Way of Metro Nashville, Nashville, TN Not as many Uber and Lyft drivers but have seen an increase in gig economy jobs. Created business worksheets for volunteers and Uber/Lyft drivers. If anyone has any questions or thoughts on this topic, please shoot us an at eitcoutreach@cbpp.org. We would love to talk to you. Part II: Tax Sites and Clientele Changes --EITC Claimants We ve heard that some sites have experienced a change in the number of EITC claims filed. Has this been the case at your site? Are there any factors that contribute to the clientele changes? Tina Sherrard, Ivy Tech Community College, Bloomington, IL Clients going to paid preparers to get their refund back sooner. Kristie Weiland Stagno, Just Harvest, Pittsburg, PN Saw same number of EITC clients but less clients with large EITC refunds. Some factors that contributed to that: Clients going to paid tax-preparers to speed up the refund process, scheduling problems at the site, late outreach. Served more EITC clients due to expansions and the CA EITC. Had queen-size posters outside and the inside of buses that run through low income areas. Sent EITC postcards to 5 lowest income zip codes and invited them to file taxes with us. Played down the language to encourage people to file their taxes with us. Roxy Caines, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC

5 USPS has the Every Door Direct Mail program sends out mail at a bulk rate and allows you to target your mailing based on zip codes, household size, and more. We will continue to monitor change in clienteles since it will help us figure out how to better help you improve your outreach. Part III -- Virtual VITA & Drop-Off Services Are you interested in incorporating Virtual VITA or drop-off services? Are there any costs associated with having a virtual VITA site? The Virtual VITA offers convenience for the client and the volunteer because clients can drop off their documents and the volunteers can prepare them at a later time. Darren Liddell, The Financial Clinic, Brooklyn, NY Had hybrid in-person and virtual VITA site model for the last 2-3 years. Hoping to expand the main virtual VITA that is connected to 6 satellite virtual VITA. Clients wait 2 weeks for taxes to be done after they drop off their documents and ID. Use Dropbox to securely send files. Had a virtual VITA site that was extremely popular with immigrant clients. The virtual VITA only works if traditional and virtual VITA are separated. Ross Yednock, Community Economic Development Association of Michigan, Lansing, MI 3 rd year of a pilot of a statewide outreach effort and is looking to expand more sites. Partnered with 7 libraries in two counties and trained librarians to do the in-take process: documents, federal and state intake forms, and ID s are scanned into Dropbox. Served 130 clients across the state in 2 months with 4 tax sites committed to do taxes. The cost of the virtual VITA varies depending on the program that you have. Katy Schultz, Prepare + Prosper, St. Paul, MN Sites are focused on individuals with disabilities who re home bound or living in a group home, nursing home, or for people with multiple prior years to file. The first year of having a virtual VITA site is complicated and not costeffective. Had clients sign responsibility form to hold them accountable for finishing their taxes. Found that having dedicated staff time is critical to the success of the program. Having a lot of communications with customers back and forth is the key to success. Roxy Caines, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC Another benefit of virtual VITA is that the flexibility can attract volunteers.

6 Part IV -- Financial Coaching How do you incorporate financial coaching in your tax program? If you have a financial coaching program, are there concerns about your program? Roxy Caines, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC Financial coaching is something that more and more programs are incorporating. Clients can sign up for financial coaching at tax sites, but most forget they signed up. Started the Savings and Credit Ready campaign with Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa. o Every client got a postcard that promoted a free credit poll and credit repair. o If clients saved their refund, Catholic Charities matched saved amount up to $100. o If clients go to financial coaching classes and save $500, Catholic Charities matched saved amount up to $500. Part V -- Tax Law Changes What are your thoughts and concerns about the new tax law changes that are coming in? Are you worried about how to train volunteers and how it would affect TaxSlayer? Lynn Weckworth, United Way of Northern New Jersey, Bridgewater, NJ Worried that IRS won t have the information ready in time for our volunteer training. Suzanne Yeomans, United Way of the Wine Country, Santa Rosa, CA Have clients go to the IRS website and use the tax withholding calculator. Part VI Announcements This summer, the Get It Back campaign will develop more outreach resources. We may be reaching out to you to follow up on resources you may need. Our next training will be chatting with the Financial Clinic on July 25 th If you have any questions or suggestions, please us at eitcoutreach@cbpp.org.