Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=178557
Story Retrieval Date: 5/25/2013 9:34:31 PM CST
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Auburn Gresham tax filers reflect on their experiences.
Worried about filing taxes? In Auburn Gresham, free service makes it easy
by Liz M. Kobak
Feb 16, 2011
Liz M. Kobak/MEDILL
Low-income taxpayers gather in the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp.'s intake center before having a free session with a tax preparer.
Liz M. Kobak/MEDILL
Auburn Gresham volunteers file 50 free tax returns a day.
Liz M. Kobak/MEDILL
Carlos Nelson, executive director, the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, says he has a tight-knit relationship with low-income tax payers in the community.
Carlos Nelson, executive director, the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, attends each tax preparation session.
Related Links
The Greater Auburn-Gresham Development CorporationThe Center for Economic ProgressHours
Mondays and Thursdays: 5:30-8 p.m.
Saturdays: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Through April 18, at 1159 W. 79th St. (at Racine). Call 773-483-3696
Service saves $6 million in prep fees
Since 1994, the Center for Economic Progress, a Chicago non-profit organization, has been providing free tax preparation services to low-income families at 11 Chicago sites and 28 in total throughout Illinois. Professionally trained volunteers help families earning an annual income of $50,000 and individuals earning $25,000 or less file their taxes on computers at the sites.
The Center for Economic Progress said that last year its tax preparation sites statewide resulted in refunds totalling $54.2 million and saved taxpayers $6 million in preparation fees.
The Auburn Gresham site accounted for 5 percent of that.
Pam Wafford, the non-profit organization’s site manager, said as of last week volunteers helped file 455 tax returns.
If the trend continues, Wafford predicted that volunteers will file 50 tax returns a day.
Ernest Sanders, program manager at the corporation, said the community’s volunteer tax preparers have exhibited extraordinary commitment to helping: “One time 35 [volunteer tax preparers] stayed here until [midnight],” Sanders said.
Despite the enthusiasm, Sanders said, “There are not enough volunteers."
He added that balancing the primary interests of taxpayers and preparers has been challenging.
“Sometimes the taxpayers don’t understand that volunteers have a family to go home to,” he said.
The volume is explainable in part because the next-closest tax preparation site at 62nd Street and Cottage Grove, shut down after last year’s tax season, Wafford said. “Because that has closed, this is the first year that clients from there can come here."
But Sanders said the larger turnout of low-income taxpayers is due to the corporation's extensive advertising in the community. And Chicago radio station Power 92 provides free advertising for the program.
Regardless of where they are from, people who have had the service, Wafford said, are appreciative.
“I could be in the South Side or in Evanston and people will come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you look awfully familiar,” she said. Once they make the connection, she added, they thank her.
What you get
The Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp.’s Executive Director Carlos Nelson lives a stone's throw away from the building. He often greets participants in the free tax preparation program.
Nelson said he and his employees use “guerrilla marketing” to advertise.
Sometimes it’s an all-day affair, but Nelson said it is worth it.
“So we have guys going door to door with flyers all the time, advertising not only our tax site, but each initiative and event that we do,” he said.
And it was only 10 in the morning.
She found out the hard way that the crowds gather early at the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp.’s tax preparation intake center at this time of year.
Ernest Sanders, program manager at the corporation, said it’s hard turning away community members who are looking for help to file taxes.
“We always have more folks getting their taxes done than tax preparers,” Sanders said. “Last year we accepted too many folks at once and didn’t have enough tax preparers.”
This year, though, despite more preparers, there are still more community members seeking the service than there are preparers and so some people find themselves turned away when the room is full.
Here’s how it works:
Phase 1: Intake Center
People start lining up outside of the intake center about 8:30 a.m. to reserve a spot and get their fill of complementary Dunkin Donuts’ coffee and doughnuts as they wait for services.
The center was filled with more than 30 low-income taxpayers, each of whom had the following documents in hand:
• A copy of last year’s tax return
• Taxpayer’s proof of identity (some official form of picture i.d.)
• All forms, W-2, 1098 and 1099
• Information for other income
• Identification number for child (Social Security number)
• Information for deductions/credits
• Proof of account for direct deposit of refund (i.e., voided check)
• Social Security cards and/or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number notices/cards for you, spouse and dependents.
As the tax prep sessions got under way, an intense sound swelled through the room as the papers had begun to ruffle and people asked and answered questions.
Last week, eight low-income taxpayers opened accounts.
The site manager at the facility, Pamela Wafford, invited a banker to the facility to help people who don't have accounts open them.
"I really try to make money-management work for their advantages,” Wafford said. “If you’re getting a refund, I don’t just want you getting a check. I want you to have some kind of financial institution established as a protection for your refund.”
Low-income taxpayers, some of whom don’t have bank accounts, were then placed into groups of five to eight, depending on when they first arrived, Wafford said.
While most were sitting and others standing, all were anxiously waiting to have their taxes filed for them for free.
Derek Grayson, 61, pressed and curved his back against the wall. He was about to file his taxes at the site for the first time.
“Well I’d just be happy to get it done for free and get it filed electronically,” said the 61-year-old Robbins resident. “I think it’s a great service.”
Grayson, who usually filed his taxes at his church in Robbins, said church representatives, who weren’t offering services on the day he wanted to file, referred him to the Auburn Gresham site for a good reason.
“I feel the great sense of community here,” he said. “Everyone’s friendly, seems to be cooperative, and it should be a good experience.”
When the first group of names was called, some free-tax preparation patrons got so excited they pushed their way through the crowd and followed a representative out the door and into a new space.
Phase 2: It's time to file
“Tax wise, we work with the IRS and use their software,” said volunteer Reggie Riddle as he was setting up to assist his first client of the day. “We e-file for free which, if you go to any paid preparer, they would charge you just to e-file, let alone doing your taxes,” he said in regard to the online system he will be using to file the taxes.
While waiting with their paperwork, returners Benny Alex and Cheryl Martin offered their two centsabout why they choose to file their taxes through the free Auburn Gresham tax preparation site specifically.
The executive director of the center, Carlos Nelson, talked about the importance of the service.
“The lack of information is, I think, commensurate to the fact that the vehicles to getting the information to residents in the community is not really there.”
Phase 3: Cash back
When leaving the center, constituents should keep this envelopewith them for at least three years.
As people leave the center, they know that they will receive their tax refunds within 15 days.
“They can pocket that money and they can use that to better their existence,” Nelson said.
And the service is user friendly.
“If you ask these 1,500-plus clients, they will all tell you. For them, the benefit is saving money. All these other tax filing services that proliferate in all communities, they charge $300 or $400 dollars to get your taxes done. Here’s, it’s totally free,” Nelson said.
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