Community Action preparing early to help with tax returns
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Andy Marmol, a long-time volunteer tax return preparer, looks to Madeline Sloboda, director of operations at Fayette County Community Action, as they discuss the upcoming Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Madeline Sloboda, director of operations at Fayette County Community Action, talks about the the agency’s upcoming Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) progam as well as the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) initiative.
Filling out income tax returns is a springtime chore, but Fayette County Community Action Agency has already started getting ready to help elderly residents and lower income families prepare their forms.
Community Action has been getting volunteers to help people prepare their state and federal tax returns through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs for 34 years and is expanding the VITA program in 2016.
Beginning on Feb. 1, 11 volunteers, including eight who are certified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to prepare tax returns, will staff a donated space in the Uniontown Mall to help fill out tax returns for free from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Walk-ins will be accepted Mondays and Wednesdays and appointments will be needed Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The location hasn’t been determined. Mall officials will give Community Action a place to set up in January.
“Those are all volunteers. We have no paid staff at the site,” said Madeline Sloboda, Community Action operations director. “They must be recertified annually through the IRS.”
In addition to the mall location, a VITA office will be added to Community Action’s Family Service Center at 140 N. Beeson Ave. in Uniontown, Sloboda said.
At least two volunteers will staff the office. The opening date hasn’t been determined, and the office doesn’t have a phone number yet.
Community Action will advertise the opening date, hours and phone number of the VITA office and the location of the mall location sometime in January, Sloboda said. Appointments will be required at the Community Action location, she added.
Families must be eligible for earned income tax credits to qualify for the free help from the Community Action volunteers, she said.
Last year, Andy Marmol was among the volunteer tax preparers who donated 1,800 hours of their time to help complete about 1,000 tax returns.
“You do it because you enjoy doing it,” said Marmol, a retired school teacher who has been a volunteer tax preparer for Community Action for 14 years. “It’s nice to work with people.”
He said some of the elderly people he helps worry that having a third party help them complete their returns will put them on the IRS’s radar for audits.
“I really feel bad for some of the elderly. People are really afraid of the IRS. They work with you. People shouldn’t be afraid of them,” Marmol said.
Some residents have been taking advantage of the free tax help for years and request to see the same volunteer who helped them in the past.
“Our volunteers are very dedicated,” said Magan Aston, who recruits volunteers for Community Action as the director of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).
Most people’s tax returns are routine, but some have to account for stock transactions, natural gas royalties and Affordable Care Act benefits, Marmol said.
People who seek tax help must bring photo identification, Social Security cards or individual taxpayer identification, W-2 and 1099 forms, interest and dividend statements from banks, copies of this year’s returns, bank account numbers for direct deposit and records of the amount of money paid to daycare providers and the providers’ tax identification numbers.
The vast majority of people who seek help from Community Action volunteers file their returns electronically and receive their refunds in two or three weeks, but paper copies can be provided for people who prefer to mail their returns, Marmol said.