IRS helps poor prepare taxes

The headaches of tax season are approaching fast. But the Volunteer Income Tax Assistants -- an Internal Revenue Service program -- will be helping people file simple tax returns for their 25th year. The VITA program, which counts several University students among its volunteer staff, was created for low income, disabled or elderly residents of the community who are unable to file their own taxes or afford a professional firm to help them. Given these guidelines, there is a large demand for VITA sites in the Philadelphia area, according to VITA coordinator Richard Furlong. Each year, between two and three million taxpayers have their returns prepared at VITA sites around the country. In previous years, Philadelphia's primary site has been located at Sixth and Arch streets in the IRS office in the Federal Building. The office filed over 1,200 returns last year. But IRS employees could not have done this by themselves. "The students are the key to making the site work," Furlong said. In the last few years the VITA volunteers' jobs have become virtually paperless. The IRS has developed a system for electronic filing that only requires one piece of paper which bears the signature of the taxpayer. This makes the process much less complicated and time consuming for both taxpayers and VITA volunteers. VITA coordinators Joseph Solari and Furlong conduct three-hour volunteer training sessions once a week for five weeks. Formal training begins in January and concludes with a final exam in the middle of February. By the completion of the course, volunteers are able to file simple tax returns. "We look forward to working with them," Solari said of this year's volunteers. "They have done very well in training." This year's training sessions are held at the Penn Law School. VITA had representatives at the Law School's community service fair early in the academic year and has since become a very popular way to fill the Law School's 70-hour public service requirement. Approximately 15 Law students are involved in the program as well as two University undergraduates. Amy Malerva, a College junior, is an intern in the Taxpayer Education department of the IRS, which led her to choose VITA for a community service experience. As an Urban Studies major, she is also fulfilling the department's internship requirement. "Now I know more about why I pay taxes and where they go," said Malerva of her experience with VITA. "Interacting with tax returns, the residents of Philadelphia and the Law students is really good experience." Thomas Manning, a second-year Law student, is also enjoying his experience with VITA. Although Manning is participating in the program to fill the Law School's public service requirement, he said he is happy to give back to the community. TelaFile is another tax filing program developed by the IRS for people, such as college students, with simple tax returns. It allows certain individuals to file tax forms via a toll-free touch-tone telephone call that lasts approximately 10 minutes. TelaFile is an efficient program that gets refunds back within 3 weeks, according to Solari. Last year -- the first year the system was available -- 2.8 million people used TelaFile to file their taxes. Many of the 20 million people whose returns are simple enough to make them eligible for TelaFile are college students, Solari noted.

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