VITA Volunteer Newsletter


Week of March 11th, 2022

Your weekly resource for tax tips, important dates, and other news of note

from the VITA staff!

Tax Updates

Happy Friday everyone! We hope you are all having a chance to enjoy these sunny Southern Arizona days in between your bouts of amazing tax prep work. Thanks for all your effort, insight, and excellent questions as we continue through this tax season!


Some notes for this week...

All Tax Preparers: Remember to check the EITC lookback option for every return within EITC income limits!


Since some families’ 2021 earned income may still have been affected by the pandemic, either through job loss or reduced hours, their eligibility for the TY 2021 EITC may have been impacted. In order to prevent a reduction in EITC for eligible families, the IRS allows taxpayers to claim the EITC on the basis of EITHER their pre-pandemic, 2019 earned income or their 2021 earned income. For this reason, we are asking taxpayers to provide a copy of their 2019 tax return.


How to determine 2019 earned income:

1. Add up the following amounts from the 2019 tax return:

  • Form 1040, line 1, Wages, salaries, tips, etc.
  • Form 1040, Schedule 1, line 3, Business income or (loss)


2. Enter this amount in TaxSlayer > Basic Information > Personal Information


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TaxSlayer will compare to 2021 earned income and automatically determine which yields the greater EITC and ACTC benefit.


Jerry Ershun helped us put together a helpful cheat sheet for considering Look Back. Find it here: EITC Look Back Check

Note on Form W-2

When entering form W-2 into TaxSlayer, make sure the taxpayer address (autofills with the address that was entered in Personal Information) matches the address printed on the form. It frequently doesn’t, for example if the taxpayer has moved. In that case, you must change the address to what is stated on the W-2. Form W-2 in TaxSlayer has to be an exact copy of the original form.

Logging Hours

The VITA program relies on funding from the IRS, which is directly related to the number of service hours provided by all VITA volunteers. 


Please make sure that you log ALL your volunteer hours either in the Volunteer Log available at all physical VITA sites or, for volunteers working remotely, using this link: https://forms.office.com/r/dg0XcRynNw


*Note that we made a few tweaks to this form - volunteers now have the option of logging total hours over a date range in addition to tracking clocking in/out times on certain days. Please feel free to track your hours in the way that makes most sense for your situation on the form.

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Calendar


Nothing on the calendar currently beyond our regularly scheduled tax preparation!

Volunteer Resources


VITALinks has long been our primary webpage for volunteer tax resources - it's your one-stop reference for tax preparation guides and tools. Resources will be added to VITALinks as the tax season gets going - check out the following links in the meantime:


United Way of Tucson Updates

United Way of Tucson is working to build a thriving community by uniting people, ideas, and resources. We envision a community where every child receives a high-quality education from birth to career, every adult has the opportunity to thrive financially and in the workplace and every older person can retire and age with dignity and independence. From birth to career, career to retirement, and retirement to end of life, United Way supports the well-being and success of every person in Southern Arizona.

Financial Wellness Partnership: Network Meeting Notes

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United Way's Financial Wellness Partnership recently hosted Brian Mayer, a sociology professor at University of Arizona, for their February network meeting. Professor Mayer shared preliminary findings from his Fall 2021 Tucson Poverty Project class survey of Eviction Prevention Program participants. 


The survey focused on risk factors for eviction, the assistance application process, and participants' future plans for economic and housing stability. Less than 20% of respondents reported plans to start putting money aside for savings, and food and utilities were highest on the wishlist for future aid. As a group, we talked through potential implications and next steps related to the findings – including ideas of how, where, and when to start engaging people with other basic needs and financial stability resources. United Way looks forward to supporting efforts to link more people with long-term stability assistance as our community continues to rebuild and navigate the affordable housing crisis.

Questions, comments, or feedback?

Contact the VITA team:


vita@unitedwaytucson.org

https://unitedwaytucson.org/vita/

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