MOUNT RAINIER, Md. – Dorcus Noy heard about it from a friend on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, she was sitting down with a tax professional at St. James Catholic Church in Prince George’s County, getting her taxes done free of charge.
Noy called the Internal Revenue Service for a list of sites where the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program was located and then made her way to the church.
“This (St. James) was the closest,” she said.
Noy is one of thousands of low-income Maryland residents who will get help with their federal and state taxes through the IRS program. VITA offers free tax help to people who earned less than $35,000 and cannot prepare their own tax returns.
Volunteers, who are sponsored by various organizations, get training to help prepare basic tax returns in communities across Maryland and the country during tax season. They are armed with laptop computers and tax-preparation software that helps them through the process.
“It kind of makes you feel smart,” said Anne Welsh, coordinator for the St. James VITA site, as she went over the last details of Noy’s tax return on her laptop.
Advocates say the program and others like it are aimed at helping low-income Marylanders get the tax information and aid they need, without falling prey to tax scams.
“It’s just a matter of information,” said Lafeea Watson, spokeswoman for the Salvation Army of Greater Baltimore.
Watson said that many of the people who turn to non-profits for help during tax season walk in with tax-time horror stories.
“They’re talking about how they paid $250” to get their tax refunds, said Watson, adding that the Salvation Army teamed up with VITA at a facility in Middle River.
Watson said the quick-return deals sound great until taxpayers, most of them low-income, realize that they have to fork over as much as half of their returns.
“You have those groups with the flashy ads, and the jingles stay on your mind,” Watson said. “We have to counteract that by saying, ‘You have these other options.'”
The St. James and Middle River sites were two of many across the state, where volunteers waded through tax forms and multiple W-2 forms to help low-income residents.
VITA sites are generally located at community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools, shopping malls, and other convenient locations, with most offering free electronic filing.
“We’ve gone out of our way to educate,” said Jim Dupree, spokesman for the IRS in Maryland.
Dupree said that in addition to collaborating with volunteer tax centers, the IRS is also hoping people take advantage of filling online. The IRS expects 2.8 million returns from Maryland this year, and that 60 percent of those are expected to be electronically filed.
“If they go to our Web site . . . they can find free-file,” Dupree said.
Back in the classroom at St. James, Latoya Lindsay looked over the changes volunteer Carol Denison made to her amended tax return.
“It definitely helped me,” said Lindsay, adding that she appreciated the time the volunteers took to help her with her taxes.
“It was an eye opener,” said the mother of one. “They try to understand the situation and help.”
-30- CNS 04-09-04