City to assist families with tax preparation

Bloomington is striving to help people file taxes for free, instead of paying for a tax-preparation service like H&R Block.\nThis service will be available for residents who receive lower income.\nOn Friday, Mayor Mark Kruzan announced that Bloomington is collaborating with the Internal Revenue Service and several area agencies to offer free tax preparation and filing assistance to low- and moderate-income residents through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, according to a press release. \nVITA is an income tax assistance program that helps low- to moderate- income residents prepare their taxes , Youth and Family Projects Coordinator and Community and Family Resources Sue Owens said.\n"The city is acting as a liaison and coordinating the program with several different local agencies that are helping to bring this volunteer assistance program," Owens said. "The low- to moderate-income people will save more money, they won't have to prepare taxes and they won't have to pay H&R Block to have taxes done. They will benefit from the savings."\nVITA services are free and will be provided with the help of volunteers who will assist eligible families. \nIn addition, VITA assists taxpayers who are eligible to receive tax refunds from the Earned Income Tax Credit, according to a press release. When the EITC exceeds the amount of taxes owed, taxpayers can get a refund check for the extra money.\nKruzan said in the press release the EITC is a refundable tax credit that lifts more families out of poverty than any other program the federal government offers.\nOwens said VITA helps assist people who are eligible to receive the federal government credit and that everyone eligible can get it. VITA also helps residents fill out these forms.\nOther participating community programs include Indiana Legal Services, Ivy Tech Community College, Monroe County Public Library, Monroe County Division of Family and Children, AARP and volunteers from the IRS-sponsored VITA, according to the press release.\nRoy Elkes, an assistant professor of accounting at Ivy Tech, currently runs a program that helps low income people repair their returns for free. \n"A lot of people are going to companies and paying exuberant amounts of money for a simple return," Elkes said. "What we do here is have students in income tax classes volunteer for the real-life experience in preparing returns."\nElkes said last year so many people come to get returns done that volunteers were worn-out. So he and Owens approached the City about coordinating efforts to ask for volunteers.\nLast week more than 60 people came to be trained -- mostly IU students.\nVolunteers are trained and then coordinated with the sites mentioned above, and Elkes said that he is hoping that the volunteers will pass the certification test so they can aid those seeking tax help.\nElkes encourages the people who qualify to receive free service in filing.\n"We would like to tell people they should be taking advantage of this service because there is no reason -- there is a problem with hunger in this community -- and if people kept 200 dollars instead of using it for tax service they can use the money for groceries or something else," Elkes said.