‘Berg Students Participate in Tax Preparation Service
This spring, over 20 Muhlenberg students will participate in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to provide free tax filing assistance to Allentown residents.Wednesday, February 15, 2006 01:59 PM
This is the third year that ‘Berg has participated in the VITA program.
In partnership with the Community Action Committee of Lehigh Valley, the students will receive extensive training and certification from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and then work a minimum of 8 hours on site helping families with their taxes.
Developed by the IRS, the VITA program helps low-wage workers obtain free tax filing assistance and education about the Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit. 260 returns were filed, up from 183 the previous year. The free tax preparation program, earned the families $401,752 in federal refunds, an average of $1,545 per family. It is also estimated that the families saved $21,840 by simply eliminating the need for a commercial tax preparation service.
Last year, Muhlenberg was one of three sites that participated in the CACLV program, which generated $813,046 in refunds for 620 clients overall.
