​Helping the ​​

Community

/Every W2 at a time

/Proposal

     Many Americans are getting jobs and are able to provide for themselves and their family. In Horry County, we are continuing to strive from the jobs we have. It should make sense that we all enjoy a paycheck because it shows our hard work for the past two weeks; however, for workers who make less than $49,078 a year they can maybe look for another check coming their way. My plan is to continue helping with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program to provide services to the public. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, (VITA), program sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service, (IRS), prepares taxes for free with the help of the United Way (Theis). The United Way is a non-profit organization that provides several services to the residents of Horry County.
     I have been involved with this program and helping them since I was in the ninth grade. My mother has been helping the community by volunteering with VITA for over 10 years and is now the site coordinator for Horry County. She donates four days out of every week with other volunteers, like myself, at different locations to try and help everyone in our community to get their taxes filed. This plan has been serving the community for the last ten years because the goal was to get the taxes that the government was taking out in checks back into the pockets of those who are eligible.
I have high school work, college work, and I have a job, so my participation is not as helpful as my mom’s. I took the basic certification test so that I would be able to assist more people; this frees the more advanced certified volunteers to do big returns, and we do not have people waiting all day. Under the basic certification, I am allowed to help those who have a W-2 and who are not itemizing and/or have retirement (Free Tax Return Preparation for You by Volunteers). I work under the supervision of my mom and alongside the other volunteers: Doug, Elizabeth, Mr. Will, and many more. We work at various locations like the Conway Library, Loris Medical Center, and the Myrtle Beach Library. United Way helps out with us directly, but we still do work under the IRS.
     My plan is to help our community get the taxes that were taken out of their paychecks throughout the year if they are able, and it has already been proven that we have been successful in our goal. Our main objective is getting people the most money in a quick and timely manner, but while there are other tax prepares in the Horry County area, they charge (Somers). H&R Block commercials say they will “LOOK” at your paperwork for free to see if they are in check, but for them to file the taxes so that you may receive a refund check, the cost for preparation can rise to $300 or higher. In the 2010 tax season, we helped more than a thousand taxpayers whose combined total of refunds came to be more than $1.5 million; also, because of our free service, we saved taxpayers more than $536,428 (Theis).
     At the end of every tax year, the IRS will send us the total number of people we helped along with the total money we helped them get back. That is one of the only ways for us to check our progress. I do all my work on a computer so after I have finished with a person their information is saved into the computer so that it may be reviewed later on. In the final report we receive at the end of the year, we can also see how many people we helped personally. When looking at our overall report for the tax season it makes me feel good when it shows that I helped more than 100 people by myself.
     When you walk into the building to get your taxes prepared, you see that we are already set up waiting for you. When you come to get your taxes filed it looks as if the room stays like it is every day, but the truth is that we use the same computers at every site. We have limited supplies because we had to get the materials ourselves. Before the United Way received a grant from the government, we would go out into the community and ask them if they would like to help us by providing paper or pens for us. This was a great moment for me because different I saw how locals treated us well by donating supplies that ultimately helped them in the long run. The materials needed to prepare taxes are a computer, printer, ink, paper, pens, and the software needed to do taxes.​

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Works Cited

"Free Tax Return Preparation for You by Volunteers." IRS. Internal Revenue Service, 28 Jan 2013. Web. 31 Jan 2013. <http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Free-Tax-Return-Preparation-for-You-by-Volunteers>

Somers, Brennan. "Tax returns to be delayed, experts say go ahead and file now." WMBF News. WMBF News, 01 Jan 2013. Web. 31 Jan 2013. <http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/20682740/tax-returns-to-be-delayed-experts-say-go-ahead-and-file-now>.

Theis, Lindsey. "VITA prepares free tax returns." Carolina Live. WPDE News Channel 13, 28 Jan 2012. Web. 31 Jan 2013. <http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=713058