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.

For this to go in affect, it must also be passed by the Senate and signed into law by the President, which is expected to happen.

If you would like to take advantage of this new deduction, please wait a few weeks until it is signed and the IRS has enough time to update their tax forms.  Tax filers who do not owe taxes will not be impacted and can file their taxes when they are ready.

This is not an unprecidented proposal.  In 2005, tsunami relief donations were allowed to be counted on 2004 tax returns.

Pearl Street Community Center
110 Pearl Street
Garner, NC 27529

The site hours and phone number have not changed.  For more information about this free tax preparation site, please visit their page.

As always, the WakeTax.org’s information is updated as we’re made aware of changes.

Information and items for these bags have been provided by United Way of the Greater Triangle, Wake County Complete Count Committee, Fiscal Progress, Go Direct, Wachovia/Wells Fargo, and Vision Credit Education. All clients will receive this information so they will be made aware of additional services available to them.

The best way to figure out which filing status is the right one to file is to talk to your tax preparer.  The volunteer tax preparers at VITA and Tax Aide sites have received training in how to determine filing status, and when all else fails, have an IRS-created flowchart to determine what filing status fits you and your situation.  They can ask the right questions so that you are filing correctly to ensure that you receive the tax credits you’re due.

Remember, just like any advertising, what you see is not always what you get.  Some services may promise expedited refunds…but these “refunds” are actually loans.  High cost Tax Refund Anticipation Loans.  We weary of any tax preparer who seems more interested in selling you products or services than in filing your taxes quickly and accurately.

The IRS actually can direct deposit your refund in about 10 business days.  You don’t have to go to a paid preparer to do it, either…Wake County VITA and Tax Aide sites can e-file returns allowing you to get your refund back quickly without costing you any money, up front or out of your refund.

Another popular claim is that going with the advertised preparer will get you more money.  It’s important to remember that there IS an accurate amount you should get back.  Any refund larger will be the result of fraud (even if you don’t know that they are doing it, you will suffer the consequences!) or error.  Anything less will likely be the result of carelessness or poor training.

The best thing you can do to ensure you’re getting your accurate refund (or amount owed) is to get your taxes done by a preparer who has received adequate training.  All VITA and Tax Aide volunteers are trained and certified by the IRS to prepare and file the returns that they are preparing.

You can plug in your city or zip code here to find a convenient site to you.

Remember back in March or April of last year when you saw a slight increase in your paycheck?  The reason for the increase of take-home pay then was that federal tax withholding was decreased in order to allow you to have your Making Work Pay Tax Credit during the year, not when you file.  This amounted to $400 for singles and $800 for married couples, and was taken out of your withholding throughout the last 8 months of the year last year.

The Making Work Pay Tax Credit is back in 2010, but it’s benefit is spread out over 12 months, instead of 8.  You’ll still see the full amount in your pay check, but it will coming in smaller pieces with each paycheck.  So if nothing’s changed between this year and last, your take home pay would have shrunk slightly, though it still won’t go back to your pre-April 2009 level just yet (if the credit is not extended for 2011, then your take-home pay will go back down to “normal”).

Remember people with multiple jobs or spouse who both work might have been burned in 2009 by having less withheld than they should.  If this is you, you may consider adjusting your W-4 so that more is withheld in 2010.

As volunteers sites, our VITA and Tax Aide locations would be exempt from this new oversight.  That doesn’t mean that we have no IRS-oversight, as we’ve actually already have those types of quality measures in place.  We are in constant contact with the IRS to make sure that we are meeting their strict requirements for how a volunteer site must be run.

Each volunteer who prepares taxes must be certified by the IRS at the level that they are performing taxes.  This training and certification is a considerable up-front investment of our volunteer’s time, as it easily can take 20 hours to receive even the most basic level of training.  Just one reason why we’re grateful for our volunteers who put time and brain power into serving our community.

Returning volunteers aren’t off the hook, either…they must be re-certified each year!

Requiring paid tax preparers to receive this type of training in FUTURE years is a great idea, but rest assured that when you visit a VITA or Tax Aide site THIS year, your volunteer tax preparer will be guaranteed to have received this training and certification from the IRS.

Couldn’t hurt that it’s free as well, could it?