*GUEST POSTING* - John Monahan is a longtime GSH supporter that has helped our clients with their taxes. Spread the word about this valuable, free community resource.

TAX TIME

February 2010 begins annual tax filing season and many of Good Shepherd Housing’s clients may be worrying and wondering if they will get a refund, or owe money to the Federal Government or State of Virginia.

You may have heard about some of the well-publicized changes for the 2009 tax year using Government incentives to buy a car or a house. But you may not have heard about less publicized changes to assist taxpayers with low or moderate incomes. For example, significant changes have been made to increase the amount of earned income credit, and education credit; taxes on unemployment compensation have been reduced.

Let’s take an example using a divorced mother who is raising three young children in her household. Assume that she had an income in 2009 of $35,000, and had zero dollars withheld from her paycheck, for either Federal or State income taxes. She might be tempted to think there was no need to file taxes, but she would be wrong. This working mother would owe Virginia approximately $1,000, but she would receive a refund from the Federal Government of almost $4,000. The worst thing that she could do would be, to not file taxes. Not only would she owe Virginia and accumulate penalties and interest in future years – but she would miss out on her Federal refund.

Taxes are complicated, particularly for those with low and moderate incomes who are entitled to credits. So how do you avoid the worry of preparing taxes? The nice thing is that there is a volunteer site nearby where you can get your taxes prepared and filed electronically for free. If you are due a refund from either the Federal Government or Virginia, you will generally receive it within a week.

The closest AARP volunteer site is the Sherwood Regional Library. Hours are Monday through Saturday 10:15AM - 2:00PM, and Monday through Wednesday 4:00 PM- 7:00 PM. It will be open from Feb 1, 2010 to April 15, 2010.

Be sure to bring Social Security cards to identify yourself and all dependents. In addition be sure to bring all W-2’s, all 1099 Forms (for Pensions, Social Security Recipients or contractors), dependant care information, and any other tax related paperwork (for example vehicle taxes, bank interest). Also bring last year’s return. If you forgot to file taxes in previous years, the AARP site can do your back taxes for 2006, 2007, and 2008.

In my opinion there is absolutely no reason why every GSH client shouldn’t get their taxes done at Sherwood Regional Library. The tax volunteers have had extensive training, and your chances of a mistake are minimal. There is no need to make an appointment – just show up with your documentation. If you come early you can avoid a long wait to get your taxes prepared. See you there.

Labels: AARP tax prep, taxes