Angels of Mercy who take up Charitable Free Income Tax Preparation
Whining about the taxes is just a great release right about this season. But is it possible that there are people out there who actually enjoy tax work? Would you ever like it so much that you could volunteer free income tax preparation assistance to your neighbors? And would you love it so much, you will work hard and pass exams for the privilege? Thankfully, there are such kindhearted angels around, hundreds of thousands of them. But what seems mysterious about the whole thing is how, not many people seem to take advantage of these volunteer services, and instead insist on grumbling to themselves about how hard working on taxes is.
There are two main IRS-recognized tax assistance programs - Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA). And right about tax season, you'll see them at their stalls and offices everywhere - churches, libraries, trailer parks, community centers - everywhere, literally. And there are plenty of other such volunteer services to help you with free income tax preparation, that the IRS doesn't explicitly endorse, once like AARP Tax Aide.
It couldn't get more taxpayer-friendly either. You don't have to wait in line at a voicemail maze, or ask a question over e-mail and wait a week for an incomplete reply. You just walk in, and well-trained experts will take your input, do up your free income tax preparation, even e-file it for you. They call this the Free File Alliance, and it was established eight years ago. It would appear that ever since it began, the program has attracted maybe 5% of all the taxpaying population. That's a puzzle - since nearly 75% of everyone in the country is eligible to take advantage of them. For people who don't really have particularly intricate tax requirements, these could be ideal.
But you need to know what the other options are if you're in the market for free income tax preparation assistance. The IRS even has a whole website just for you, they call it the Free File Fillable Forms - the four F's. You just open the customer file, key in all your numbers and file it right then and there. These things don't work for your state tax return usually, but you might see an exception if you tried. But none of that is as fun as is getting your own volunteer experts at VITA or any of the other programs. They are qualified, and since they're volunteers, they genuinely care about helping you. And they won't even look at you with eyelids like floods, and expect it to.
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