person filling out 1040 tax form

Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement Offers Volunteer Tax Prep

March 14, 2008
By: Worcester State University News

The Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) has teamed up with the IRS sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and the Worcester Earned Income Tax Credit coalition to house the WSC tax site.

In its fourth year, the VITA/EITC program has grown from serving 100 taxpayers in 2005 to an expected 400 this year. The service is available to any person who has a basic tax case with low to moderate income level. Federal and state taxes are prepared in about 30 minutes and e-filed for free. Direct deposit is available, bringing the typical refund turn-around time to three to nine days.

The main goals of the program are to help low-income people save money on preparing and e-filing their taxes and increase the number of people eligible for EITC to actually receive the credit. Every year, many low-income residents (and therefore the local businesses) lose thousands of federal dollars by missing out on this credit which puts up to $4,000 extra in the pockets of working families.

This is the first year that the CSLCE has been involved in developing course content along with the service to create an actual service learning experience. This is also the first year that students from Holy Cross and two executives from AllCom Credit Union have joined the WSC class in this volunteer effort.

For more information, visit www.worcester.edu/tax prep, contact: vita@worcester.edu or 508-929-8424. Email is recommended – due to high call volume, it may take a few days to return calls.

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