5540 Centerview Drive, Suite 200

Raleigh, NC 27606

Topics to be covered include the upcoming flyers, new site details, volunteer training, and distribution of materials.

Topics of discussion will include continued plans for marketing the Wake VITA and Tax Aide sites.

It is slated to be open to the general public in January 2010, but is now available for EITC-Carolinas Partners like the Wake EITC Coalition.  This tool is available early thanks to the Aspen Institute and the National Community Tax Coalition.

The Asset Platform website will allow counselors to receive training and tools to enhance their financial education, coaching and asset development services programs.

Please join us to help plan for the tax season. We will be making preparations for the following focus areas:

• Days and hours of operation at free tax sites
• Volunteer needs at each location
• Allocating resources
• Outreach materials

A reminder email will be sent out in advance of the event. If you are not already on the distribution list, please contact Ronnica Rothe at Fiscal Progress (919-719-1750) to be added.

Time:

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Location:

View Map

Notes from 7/14/2009 Meeting:

There are two potential sources of funding for 2010.  The United Way of the Greater Triangle has granted us a Building the Triangle’s VITA Site Capacity Grant for $13,000.  This will primarily be used to pay for site coordinators at the VITA sites of the Wake County Human Services locations (Swinburne, Northern Regional, Eastern Regional, and Southern Regional) as well as two lunch and learn sessions for training volunteers.  The other source is federal funds.  We have requested $10,000 through EITC-Carolinas.

We discussed strategies for volunteer recruitment.  Organizations need to update their listings with the United Way’s volunteer portal.  These listings will also be placed on Wake County’s volunteer website.  The Coalition is working with RSVP to request volunteers to work at the various sites.  RSVP reimburses mileage for their volunteers up to 50 miles a month.  RSVP has been an excellent source of volunteers for VITA sites in other counties, so we’re excited to be working with them.

We will be setting up site visits for the three regional centers to work with the staff at those sites to understand their needs and work with them to start planning for those new VITA sites.

We hope to have booths to get out the information about EITC and VITA sites at the Wake County Human Services’ fall job and housing fairs.

The ARRA has created quite a few changes to the 2009 tax season.  One change that the public needs to be aware of is that if they are married filing jointly and more than one spouse works or if they are filing individually and work more than one job, not enough money may be withheld from their check to meet their federal tax obligation.  The IRS has informational flyers that can be passed out to let more people be aware of the situation.  Another change is that the EITC thresholds have been increased, which in turn will raise the threshold for VITA this next season to $49,000.

To further market the EITC and helpful services, we will be working on ways to get packets of helpful information into the hands of all tax clients at sites throughout the county.  Stuffed by volunteers, these packets can include brochures from the IRS and other partners.

The next meeting of the Wake EITC Coalition will be held September 15^th at 9:30 at the office of Fiscal Progress.

This will be a planning session for the upcoming tax season. We will have updates on fundraising efforts, including a grant award and outstanding grant applications.

Focuses for this upcoming year include:

• Increased volunteer recruitment
• Opening 3 new VITA sites
• Increasing total tax returns

As always, we will prioritize efforts that will have the greatest effect on taxpayers eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, child tax credits and educational credits.

Time:

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Location:

View Map

Agenda:

Download the Agenda

Wake EITC Meeting 5/19/2009 Notes:

• We discussed new sites for next year, focusing on the four regional sites of the Wake County Health and Human Services: Swinbourne, Zebulon, Wake Forest, and Fuquay-Varina. The Millbrook center may also be available after hours. These sites would naturally bring in the target population as they come in for other services.
• The United Way’s Building the Triangle’s VITA Site Capacity Grant is a possible source of funds for next year. Lorraine is completing this application for us, which is due June 1st. This money will help us open the new sites and promote all sites. Other possible sources of funding for next year include the federal VITA grant (to be applied through through EITC-Carolinas) and separate funds from EITC-Carolinas.
• We brainstormed ways to recruit new volunteers that will help us increase our capacity. We can use the Triangle United Way and Wake County sites to recruit volunteers. A PSA through United Way of the Greater Triangle is also an option, as is possibly getting potential AARP volunteers who do not want to take the required intermediate certification. Americorps volunteers may be able to be used to help screen clients at the regional sites to insure they have the required paperwork and are within the scope of VITA.
• The possibility of a Super Saturday next year was discussed. Could use one of the Wake County regional centers to do this, which would also increase publicity.
• Other promotion for next year will include increasing the numbers of flyers printed from 20,000 to 30,000.

The Wake EITC Coalition is comprised of community based nonprofit organizations, the local Internal Revenue Service office, Wake County AARP, the Triangle United Way, Wake County Human Services and various financial institutions. Many of our members provide direct tax preparation services in Wake County, while others also assist with fundraising and volunteer recruitment.

If you are not a current member but would like to find out how to get involved with this growing effort, contact Ken Long with Fiscal Progress at 719-1750.

Time:

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Location:

View Larger Map

We have a new feature this year in the 2008 TWO, if you click on the view acks button you then also have to click on the get acks button at the bottom of the view acks screen. This should update your acks and status of your returns.

In order for your tax site customers to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit or RRC, you will have to know how much stimulus payment they received last year.  The IRS.gov website has a tool to find out, but navigating to it is a bit cumbersome. 

To help you get there during your busy tax prep process, we suggest using the following link to access the tool and then putting a link on the computer desktop of each of your preparers:

https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/IRServlet?app=IRACTC&selectLanguage=en

Happy tax season.  More soon on 7216 and NC EITC Awareness Day, January 30th.

Lucy

Lucy Gorham
Senior Program Director
MDC, Inc.

We will be finalizing the drafts of the Wake EITC Coalition partner flyers that will be distributed this year. Please note that these will be sent to the printers that same day with an expected turnaround time of 4 business days. Flyers should be ready for pickup by Tuesday January 13. This is later than we originally hoped, so we will need to make sure we can distribute these to areas of greatest need as quickly as possible!