Progress Through Business and its sister organization, the Center on Business and Poverty, helped establish a number of years ago volunteer tax preparation sites in three cities in Wisconsin: Madison, Milwaukee, and Wausau. This year, we are happy to report another successful tax season for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The 87 volunteers and a few dedicated site coordinators were able to serve over 1300 clients for 2016. Almost $2,000,000 in refunds were returned to tax filers through the program in just these three cities.
For the average client the tax help means $500 more into his or her pocket than would otherwise be the case. For someone earning $11/hr, that amounts to a 2 percent raise.
We are happy to have helped establish these sites and are glad to support them in the small ways that we do. One of the most satisfying aspects of this work is that we know the volunteers benefit greatly as they learn more about taxes, assist those who need help and learn about a program that is the largest cash-based anti-poverty assistance effort in the U.S., the Earned Income Tax Credit.
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