VITA will resume free tax preparation when COVID-19 strictures for public interaction are lifted

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In compliance with COVID-19 strictures, VITA — Volunteers in Tax Assistance, a team of IRS-trained tax preparers — has temporarily suspended its free, real-time preparation of tax returns throughout the City and Zapata.

“We will see this season through,” said VITA executive director Jack Byham, noting the federal filing date has been moved forward to July 15, 2020. “As soon as restrictions are lifted, we will be back with the one-on-one free tax preparation that saves our 500-plus clients money and keeps tax refund revenues in the local community.”

Longtime VITA volunteer Richard Rodriguez said VITA is encouraging a quick text with questions to (956) 307-8138.

“As of the time the COVID-19 restrictions came into effect for convening in public places, we were on track to surpass the numbers for last year’s success of federal refunds of $10 million — including Earned Income Credit and child care tax credit — plus the $6,200 in savings 500 clients would have spent collectively for preparation of their returns,” Byham continued.

“VITA volunteers, site coordinators, and instructors are well prepared to resume their work,” he added.

VITA, which is managed by the Laredo Family Economic Success Coalition (LFESC), has prepared returns for Laredoans at no charge since 1997.

Rodriguez, the site coordinator for VITA’s office at the Joe A. Guerra Public Library on Calton Road, has prepared VITA returns since 1999. That office, too, is closed until further notice.

He said South Laredo is one of VITA’s target areas. “Word of mouth has informed South Laredoans of our services. They are the people who would most benefit from a refund. As soon as we are able, we will open our South Laredo locations and all others,” he said.

Byham, an assistant professor of political science at TAMIU, came to VITA as a volunteer. “VITA made a presentation to one of my classes in 2016. None of my students signed up, but I did. Volunteers are the heart of our work,” he noted.

Those volunteers include teachers, attorneys, accountants, students, directors of foundations, city and county employees, retirees, and business owners.

“There is a humanity to our work, and it goes both ways,” Rodriguez said. “A woman comes in and says these are my papers, and these are my husband’s papers. We ask questions and get the filing document to make sense. We get a woman who is distraught over losing a loved one, and we do our best to get her return done,” Rodriguez said.

“We are in this together,” said Patricia Hernandez, an instructor and a volunteer at VITA’s Azteca neighborhood site. She joined the organization eight years ago and now oversees volunteer training by IRS instructors. “Volunteer tax preparers receive 16 hours of intense training between November and mid January,” she said.

“I love helping people by working out payment plans with the IRS and helping them write the letters for that purpose. Education is very important to me, too, as much for the volunteer preparing a return as for the client. I want the preparers to know everything that goes into a return and how to do it well. For the taxpayer I want them to know why we pay taxes and why they are getting a refund,” Hernandez said, adding that every return gets a quality review before being filed. “We verify everything: Social Security numbers, DOB, numbers on W-2s, number of dependents, bank routing numbers,” she said.

“As soon as it is safe to resume our work with the public, we’ll be there,”Byham said.

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