Volunteer to Prepare Taxes: Not as Taxing as You’d Think

Free Tax Prep Can be First Step for Financial Success

January 30, 2012 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe, but there is a benefit to filing your taxes – even if you don’t get a refund! That’s because getting free tax preparation at an Earn It! Keep It! Save It! site can open the door to hundreds of local programs that can help you improve your finances.

For example, Yolanda D. visited the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! site at the SparkPoint San Francisco at Plaza Adelante last year. Free tax preparation was just the first step for Yolanda. She earns a living by cleaning houses, and dreamed of formally starting her own house-cleaning business someday.

Our free tax sites can connect you with local programs that can help you start saving, go back to school, get a good job, buy a first home or start a new business.

With SparkPoint’s help, she connected with a business consultant who helped her register her business and develop a business plan. Mission Economic Development Agency, which runs the SparkPoint San Francisco center, provided Yolanda with a $1,500 business-startup grant, which she invested in her business. Yolanda was also referred to the Mission Asset Fund, a partner organization at Plaza Adelante, to sign up for the Individual Development Account (IDA) matched-savings program with the intention of saving more money to invest in her business.

With a robust plan for expanding and sustaining her company, Yolanda is well on her way to financial success. And, it all started with a tax return.

Earn It! Keep It! Save It! kicked off in the Bay Area last week and is providing free tax preparation at more than 200 locations to households that earned less than $50,000 in 2011. Call 211 or visit www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org to find the free tax site near you.

And when your taxes are done, don’t forget to ask about programs

Filed Under: Pathways out of Poverty Tagged With: Earn it Keep it Save it, Income, success story

Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Kicks Off 10th Year Today

January 27, 2012 By Maria Stokes 1 Comment

Our free tax sites open the door to programs that empower people to improve their finances. In addition to saving families hundreds of dollars on tax preparation, our sites connect low-income families with programs that can help them start saving, go back to school, get a good job, buy a first home or start a new business.”

- Kelly Batson, a director of United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, which kicks off its 10th year in the Bay Area today.

The Earn It! Keep It! Save It! coalition provides free tax preparation at more than 200 Bay Area locations to households that earned less than $50,000 in 2011. To find a tax site, call 211 or visit www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org.

Last year, the program prepared taxes for nearly 60,000 families and helped bring back $63.8 million in tax refunds back into our community. That money gets spent locally, helping generate economic growth, jobs, and a stronger tax base.

Read the press release.

Filed Under: Pathways out of Poverty Tagged With: Bay Area, Earn it Keep it Save it

Volunteer to Prepare Taxes: Not as Taxing as You’d Think

October 17, 2011 By Beth Trimarco Leave a Comment

Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, United Way’s free tax preparation program, relies on 3,600 volunteers to ensure that people get the refunds they deserve – volunteers like Kristina Ng. When Kristina first walked into a tax site, she was nervous but prepared. She had no previous experience. However, she had received special training through Earn It! Keep It! Save It! and was now an IRS-certified tax preparer, ready to help demystify taxes for all her free-of-charge clients.

Kristina remembered one client who lived right upstairs from an Earn It! Keep It! Save It! site. The woman had seen the word, “free,” and decided to check it out. She was afraid that she was going to owe money, but when the process was done, she was thrilled when Kristina told her she would be receiving close to a $3,000 refund.

“She was so happy which made me happy,” Kristina recalled. “It was a good feeling to be able to use my skills to lift people up, give them hope, and help them build a future.”

Kristina’s client got her refund because of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which is a credit given to low-wage workers. It is often not claimed because people do not know about it, making free, reliable tax preparation all the more important for those struggling to get by. The EITC can be as high as about $6,000 which can mean the difference between paying rent or being homeless for a year.

Since its inception, Earn It! Keep It! Save It! has brought nearly $275 million in refunds, including almost $99 million in EITC credits, back to low-income residents in the Bay Area. According to Kristina, volunteering is an essential part of the equation: “Volunteering provides a vital resource for people who don’t have money,” she said. “Unlike other tax preparation services that charge, we are volunteering, so we only have one thing in mind: doing good for the people who come in.”

Though tax season is a long way off for some, Earn It! Keep It! Save It! recruits volunteers all year long. So if you are interested in learning a new skill while providing a vital service for our community, go to www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org volunteer and sign up. Training will begin this fall.

Filed Under: Income, Pathways out of Poverty Tagged With: Earn it Keep it Save it, United Way