Help Make Tax Time Less Taxing
You can help low-wage families hold on to more of their hard-earned money. United Way is now recruiting volunteers for Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, a program that provides free tax assistance to hardworking, low-income taxpayers throughout the Bay Area. Last year, the program helped 47,166 Bay Area households claim $47 million in refunds.Earn It! Keep It! Save It! volunteers helped more than 47,000 Bay Area taxpayers during the 2009 tax season.
Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Bay Area volunteers helped more than 47,000 low-wage earners during the 2009 tax season.
Participating taxpayers save up to $360 by having their taxes prepared for free instead of paying a commercial tax preparer. We’re also helping families claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, a valuable benefit provided by the U.S. government, which can return thousands of dollars to low-wage earners.
Earn It! Keep It! Save It! needs volunteers to serve as greeters, language interpreters and tax preparers for the 2010 tax season. Training begins in November, and free tax sites will open in late January. No previous tax preparation experience is necessary! There is a special need for volunteers who can speak Spanish.
Misty Halstead, who had a rewarding experience as a tax volunteer last year, said, ”Helping a family or an individual to obtain available tax benefits can have a long lasting impact by increasing educational opportunities or other means to achieving financial stability. In one instance, a college student whom I helped obtain a tax refund was so thankful to be able to afford his tuition that he sought me out at the site to personally thank me.”
Earn It! Keep It! Save It! operates more than 180 free tax sites throughout seven Bay Area Counties and needs more than 4,000 volunteers to staff these sites. You can train and serve at a tax site in your neighborhood.
Register now – visit www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org/volunteer or call 2-1-1. If you can’t dial 2-1-1, call 800-358-8832.