VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE (VITA) Community Tax Center Report

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1 VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE (VITA) Community Tax Center 2012 Report Narrative The 2012 Community Tax Center Sessions ran from Wednesday, February 1 Thursday, April 12, 2012 and were considered to be very successful. The statistics for this year s project are below. The end of the Make Work Pay Credit that many taxpayers received in 2011, for tax year 2010, was not extended to the 2011 tax year for 2012 filers. That credit provided $127,081 during the last filing cycle. Other successes and highlights of the tax season include: Addition of a second tax preparation session in Navasota. Volunteers prepared 290 returns. By using our free sites, taxpayers saved approximately $42,000 in tax preparation fees (using an estimated fee of $150 per return by commercial preparers.) The total amount of refunds this year was $470,230. This is due to the lower number of persons using the VITA sites locally. Earned Income Credit provided refunds of $175,855 which is approximately 34.7% of total refunds. Child Tax Credits of $87,735 accounted for 18.7% of total refunds. The average adjusted gross income of households for taxpayers served was $22,804. Total volunteers included: 22 community volunteers and 9 student volunteers who donated 1,024 hours.

2 According to our questionnaire, 59.7% of 2012 filers returned to a VITA site from last year. Texas A&M University s Mays school of business partnered with BVCOG. Nine students taking a 3 hour credit course served as volunteer preparers. Their combined total of 374 volunteer hours helped us provide services at all of our sites. Narrative Response: 1. Identify any issues that hindered you from serving the underserved population identified in your program plan. If you were unable to meet the minimum returns expected as outlined in your grant agreement, provide a detailed explanation as to why and be as specific as possible. The VITA Sites did not serve as many taxpayers this year as was anticipated for a couple of reasons. Brazos Valley Council of Governments/Workforce Solutions agreed to take manage the project after United Way of Brazos Valley determined that it did not have staff to manage the project this year. No funding was provided for advertising, although, paid advertising had been used in the past. The program relied totally on public service announcements by newspapers, television and radio. VITA staff made appearances on local talk shows to explain the program and how to make appointments. Mailings were sent to targeted groups this was a start-up program for Workforce Solutions and the BVCOG. That may have contributed to a lower turnout than last year. The first year of a program often has learning issues involved in working with volunteers and keeping the program on track. Another possible reason for fewer peoples using VITA sites is that free returns were available through commercial preparers as well as publicity for people to access free preparation online.

3 2. Identify efforts to increase electronic return preparation and any reasons that hindered your organization from increasing your e-filing percentage over the previous year s results. Since this is the first year, we cannot measure ourselves against a previous year. We achieved approximately a 95.9% of returns e-filed. There are several types of returns that we experienced being paper filed returns. The first type of return that some of our tax preparers worked with are taxpayers who ended up owing more taxes. Several of those people chose to mail in their return along with their payment. Another type of customer that ended up mailing a return had to do with exemptions. We found a few instances where a son or daughter had filed before their parents and claimed a personal exemption. According to tax law the son or daughter is not entitled to claim the personal exemption. In order to claim the exemption, the parent had to file a paper return with an explanation that the parent is entitled to the exemption. A third type of return had to do with divorced or separated parents who tried to claim the same child on two returns. In this instance, we recommended that the parent file a paper return with a letter explaining why that parent had a superior claim to the exemption. 3. Identify the publicity methods used to reach your targeted populations. Provide a brief assessment as to whether the publicity methods used enabled you to reach your return goals. As stated above BVCOG/Workforce Solutions sought to get publicity through a number of means: public service announcements through newspapers, radio and television. VITA staff made appearances on local talk shows to explain the program and how to

4 make appointments. There were mailings to targeted groups through our Section 8 Housing program. We placed fliers and signs in all seven of our counties to announce the program and to call to get an appointment for tax preparation. From our questionnaire filled out by the taxpayers who did come to one of our sites, almost 60% reported having used a VITA site last year. 4. Identify processes and procedures you had in place to heighten the quality of site operations. Most of the site coordinators had several years of tax preparation experience. Their experience was relied upon along with the VITA Coordinator, who qualified at the advanced level. Tax preparers were encouraged to seek help when they met a circumstance where they felt unsure how to proceed. Every return received a quality review, usually by a peer preparer. In some instances a second review was done prior to e-filing returns. 5. Explain actions taken to enhance training of volunteers. Please include any additional training provided not mentioned in your original program plan. All preparers were required to achieve certification on Ethics, Beginner and Intermediate prior to beginning tax preparation. Volunteers were encouraged and provided time on computers to take the training and the tests. Four hours of Tax Law training was provided for most of the preparers, the site coordinators and the VITA Coordinator. Our IRS contact provided 6 hours of training to almost all of the preparers using the intermediate comprehensive scenario. 6. Highlight steps taken to improve the accuracy of returns prepared at VITA sites.

5 As included in response to question 4 above, most of the site coordinators had several years of tax preparation experience. Their experience was relied upon along with the VITA Coordinator, who qualified at the advanced level. Tax preparers were encouraged to seek help when they met a circumstance where they felt unsure how to proceed. Every return received a quality review, usually by a peer preparer. In some instances a second review was done prior to e-filing returns. 7. Please provide any feedback on how IRS administered the VITA Grant Program. The IRS administered the VITA Grant Program at the highest level, ensuring all elements of the grant were reviewed and perfected for the grantee. Detailed attention was given by the IRS to ensure the grantee understands of grant requirements and details for submission of additional documentation, per the grant request.

6 Site Listing The Brazos Valley Council of Governments continued to serve tax payers throughout the region and added a second session in Navasota. Below is a complete listing of the sites and sessions: Center for Regional Services Bryan, Texas Brazos County 30 Sessions St. Mary s Church Brenham, Texas Washington 9 Sessions County Burleson County Health Resource Caldwell, Texas Burleson County 1 Session Center Annex II, Leon Co. Centerville, Texas Leon County 1 Session Truman Kimbro Center Madisonville, Madison County 1 Session Texas Workforce Solutions Center Hearne, Texas Robertson County 1 Session Navasota Center Navasota, Texas Grimes County 2 Sessions Total 45 Sessions

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