The next Wake EITC Coalition meeting will be held Tuesday, September 15 at Fiscal Progress. We will be finalizing details on new free tax sites expected to open in January 2010.

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.