With fifteen sites countrywide, the Coalition as a whole completed a total of 5,444 tax returns this season for the 2010 fiscal year. Of these, $1.5million were Earned Income Tax Credits claimed by qualifying individuals. According to the IRS, “the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a tax credit for certain people who work and have low wages.1”

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) totals included seven sites countrywide and twenty-three volunteers preparing and filing $2.1million in total refunds and $836,000.00 in EITC. An average of 1,480 tax returns were completed, increasing the previous years’ levels by 50%. By using the VITA sites during the 2011 tax season, a total of 461 families who had who had obtained a refund anticipation loan or who had paid to have their taxed prepared during the 2010 tax season, saved an average of at least $11,000.00 and $45,279.00, respectively. VITA sites serve community members who are of low income, speak a first language other than English and/or who are disabled.

The Wake EITC Coalition is a “collaboration between community partners, volunteers and government agencies organized to ease the burden of paying taxes, improve accuracy of tax returns and help taxpayers find community resources.2” The Coalition was formed in 2007 and receives training and support from the EITC Carolinas Initiative, as well as from local IRS partners and common goal organizations. It is clear that it continues to grow with each passing year.

If you will not have your 2010 paperwork gathered by the deadline, you can also file for an extension. This does not change when the tax you may still owe is due, but allows you 6 more months to file your tax return. The Fiscal Progress location can aid you in e-filing your extension form.

After April 18th, the Fiscal Progress location will also continue to prepare and file taxes year-round by appointment only. This location does tax returns for years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, and can do amendments as well. You can call (919) 719-1750 for an appointment.

KEY TALKING POINTS:

Why Raising Taxes on Working Families to Balance the Budget Shows Misguided Priorities for North Carolina

TOP MESSAGES:

Legislators’ recent plan to cut the EITC is a tax increase on North Carolina’s lowest earning working families that is bad for the state’s economy.

• 1 in 10 North Carolina households would experience a net tax increase with the loss of the refundable portion of the state EITC (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).
• More than 1 in 9 non-elderly households (12 percent) would experience a net tax increase (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).

Working families are being asked to pay for the tax breaks given away to profitable corporations.

This is bad for North Carolina’s economy. What they get from the EITC, working families spend on necessities, and they spend it locally. There’s no guarantee tax breaks for big companies stay in the state. It’s a bad deal for working families and for North Carolina.

Over 428,000 working families would see their purchasing power shrink and their ability to pay for food, clothing, housing, and transportation for themselves and their children compromised.

Families throughout North Carolina – in every zip code and every legislative district – would be hit by this tax increase.

• See attached Preliminary-2009-EITC-Data-by-County from the N.C. Department of Revenue

COUNTERING REFUNDABILITY ISSUE:

This isn’t a handout; low-income working families have to devote a higher share of what they make to sales taxes and property taxes than wealthy people do. The EITC evens the playing field and gives working families a chance to get ahead.

Ending refundability takes away the EITC’s ability to help working families cover the substantial share of their income they pay in sales and property taxes.

• North Carolina’s lowest income households, those in the bottom three-fifths pay at or near 9.5 percent of their annual income in state and local taxes. The wealthiest North Carolinians, whose incomes put them in the top 1 percent of all households pay under 7 percent of their income in state and local taxes (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).

Raising taxes on working families is the wrong way to solve North Carolina’s budget problems. North Carolina’s economy would be far better off if we maintain support for low-wage workers and their children and cancel costly tax breaks for profitable corporations.

ADDITIONAL MESSAGES:

Supporters of this tax increase say the state can’t afford the EITC. What the state can’t afford is to let struggling families go under. With the federal EITC the state EITC keeps hundreds of thousands of North Carolina working families and their children from slipping through the cracks, falling into poverty, and remaining unable to move up the economic ladder.

Business leaders support the EITC because it helps their employees stay in the workforce and make ends meet. Many businesses (such as utilities) also support it because it helps their customers pay their bills.

The EITC has a strong tradition of bipartisan support. Every U.S. President since Ronald Reagan has expanded the federal EITC. Reagan made expansion of the EITC a key part of the 1986 tax bill because he so strongly opposed income taxes on poor working families. Eliminating North Carolina’s EITC flies in the face of long held, strong bipartisan support for an effective tool for making work pay and reducing poverty.

Research shows that the EITC is very effective at encouraging parents to enter and stay in the workforce, providing a path to the middle class.

Just go to the iTunes store (or Android Marketplace) to download the free IRS2Go app. It just takes a few seconds to download.

Of course if you took advantage of free income tax preparation and filing through your local VITA or TaxAide partner, you already know when to expect your refund. If you filed by Wednesday, then your direct deposit would be in your bank account the second Friday. A paper check would be mailed the third Friday and would likely arrive a few days later. This schedule is true for the entire tax season.

For more information, visit IRS.gov or search for the IRS2Go app in the iTunes store or Android Marketplace.

National EITC Day brought out Internal Revenue Service officials and Representative Brad Miller to Wake VITA locations as a way to show support for local efforts. National EITC Day is an IRS-sponsored event that spreads news about available programs serving seniors and lower income tax filers.

First, Representative Brad Miller serving the 13th District in North Carolina visited with tax filers and volunteers at the Wake County Human Services office at Swinburne Street in eastern Raleigh. He was accompanied by IRS Senior Operations Advisor Joseph Wilson, IRS Greensboro Territory Manager Roger Burton and IRS Tax Consultant Jennifer Yearsley. UNC Radio also made a visit to publicize the event.

IRS officials Wilson, Burton and Yearsley also visited Fiscal Progress in western Raleigh where they met with tax filers and volunteers. Stan Holt, Director of Regional Initiatives with the United Way of

the Greater Triangle also was on hand to visit with all in attendance. Officials wanted to see the VITA locations that have spearheaded the Wake EITC Coalition over the past several years. IRS officials fielded numerous questions from volunteers and funders.

The Internal Revenue Service and United Way of the Greater Triangle have each provided funding for the Wake EITC Coalition and outreach efforts and continue to be primary sponsors of the service here in Wake County.

If you are a teacher deducting expenses incurred for your profession, you will have to wait to e-file. All itemizers will have to wait as well. If you have a mortgage or excessive medical expenses, you likely itemize.

According to the IRS, affected tax filers will be able to e-file Monday, February 14th. These returns are due April 18th along with the rest of 2010 individual income tax returns.

If you are an affected tax filer, you can still have your taxes prepared once you have received all your tax information. At our free tax preparation sites, we can prepare these tax returns, but will hold off on e-filing them until we have received the go-ahead from the IRS.

Questions?  Contact your free tax preparation site.

Not only do you need to wait for all your W-2s before going in to the nearest free tax preparation site, you need to make sure you have other applicable tax forms: interest statements, retirement forms (1099s), tuition forms (1098-T), and mortgage interest statements (Form 1098).  Other forms that you may still be missing–but could give you even more back–include student loan interest paid (1098-E), child care expenses paid (statement will include the tax ID number of the child care provider), and proof of charitable giving.

If you live in North Carolina, charitable giving in 2010 can get you more money back on your state return, even if you don’t itemize.  For more information, talk to your local free tax preparer.

Most of these forms have to be mailed by January 31st, but may take additional time to get to you, especially if you have moved in the last year.  If you have not received them by February 15th, than it is time to take action.   It is important to wait until you have all appropriate tax forms before filing your taxes, or you could have to repay back some of your refund.  This is especially true for families who make less than $49,000 as they may be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

For those who have already started receiving their tax forms, our free tax preparation sites will start opening as early as January 17th!

The IRS has stepped up and eliminated the debt indicator, something that paid tax preparers use to see if someone would be a reasonable risk for a high-interest, short-term loan called a RAL, or Refund Anticipation Loan.  These loans were designed to allow tax filers to receive the bulk of their tax refund in 1-2 days rather than receiving the whole refund in 10 days.

These RALs are more attractive to those of lower incomes as their refunds are often several thousand dollars thanks to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit and can use the money.  But to get a RAL, you would have had to pay–on top of the fees charged to prepare and file the return–which cuts into the money working families need.

Now, H&R Block is suing HSBC for not setting up the system needed to provide RALs for this upcoming tax season (tax year 2010).  Paid preparers make a lot of profit by offering this “service” to lower-income tax filers (H&R Block’s self-reported average fee of 2.1% works out to be 250% APR), and they aren’t happy about losing this potential revenue source.  While the action the IRS has taken doesn’t make RALs impossible or illegal, it does raise the risk of offering them, which is probably why HSBC has backed out.

Hopefully this will lead to the elimination of these high-interest loans.  There’s no need to pay someone money to receive your tax refund…you can receive your refund by direct deposit  in 10 days (sometimes less!) without paying a penny.  By visiting a free tax preparation site, you can also save additional money by not paying for your tax preparation, either.

Raleigh – April 12, 2010 — Congressman Bob Etheridge will visit the Fiscal Progress VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) site in Raleigh on Tuesday, April 13th to promote American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) ’09 tax credits.

Taxpayers will meet with Congressman Etheridge at the Fiscal Progress VITA site from 9:45 – 10:30 a.m. at 3717 National Drive, Suite 217, Raleigh, NC 27612.

Etheridge will visit the site to meet with North Carolina taxpayers who have already received tax refunds by taking advantage of AARA tax credits in areas including education, first-time homebuyers, unemployment and energy.

The VITA program is administered by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. IRS executives will be present including Area Director Fred McElligott and Territory Manager Roger Burton.

Fiscal Progress is a founding member of Wake EITC Coalition. The Wake EITC Coalition is composed of community partners that offer a variety of asset building programs in addition to free income tax preparation. www.Waketax.org offers a listing of all VITA sites in Wake County and their hours of operation.

Media Interviews

Congressman Etheridge, IRS representatives, EITC-Carolinas representatives, Fiscal Progress staff and affected taxpayers will all be available to talk with interested media outlets about the benefits of the ARRA ’09 tax credits.

About Fiscal Progress

Fiscal Progress is a local non-profit agency dedicated to promoting financial awareness, education, and asset building. It provides free tax preparation for taxpayers with low to moderate income. It is part of Wake EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing tax assistance throughout Wake County for low to moderate income taxpayers. The website provides a listing of free tax preparation sites and their hours of operation across Wake County.

Contact: Ken Long, Fiscal Progress (919) 719-1750

Northern Regional Center

Eastern Regional Center

Southern Regional Center

The location at the Swinburne office is a returning site, but is also opening this week.  For more information (including site hours and directions), click the above links.  These locations all serve those who make less than $49,000 OR are 62 or older.  They also do not require appointments.