Tuesday evening was my first day volunteering for VITA. VITA, is the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Programs that offer free tax help for taxpayers who qualify. You generally have to make $50,000 or less for this service.
My first client was a family of 5, the couple were not US citzens and provided me with ITIN's, their children were US citizens with SSN's. They spoke little english, and I had to have an interpreter with me. It was a simple W-2 with dependents. The couple was not married last year, as the husband filed Head of Household last year when he did their taxes. The husband worked at a restaurant with low income of $25,000 and the wife was a homemaker. I was pleased to see that he at least claimed 0 or 1 for federal withholding on his taxes. With 3 dependents he qualified for EIC and he had a refund of about $4000.
My second client was a woman who needed help filing out the tax survey we give to every client. She wasn't sure what her filing status was, as she filed for divorce this past year. She moved out of the house in April of 2011 and has two children that lived with her all year. She was from another country, and is a US Citizen now and has never filed taxes before as her husband always took care of the financial responsibilites. She worked for herself as a private tennis instructor and made $5000 in 2011. With vehicle expenses and her 2 children as dependents she qualified for Head of Household since she supplied more than half the income for her family. ** I don't know how since she stated that her rent is $500 a month and there is no way she was able to afford it without help and running her business with the expenses that she had. Obviously something wasn't right but we did the tax preparation anyway. Her ex husband had filed her as a homemaker the year before and told me that she wasn't that she has been an instructor for a while now. While looking at the taxes from the previous year I couldn't help but see some shady capital losses. Its none of my business, this isn't my life, but all I could tell her is that she can redo the taxes if she wanted to. She ended up with a $300 return. I really hope things work out for her as she is so uneducated of our tax system here.
Overall, it was a great experience and it is nice to be helping people this year and doing some volunteer work. Volunteering is important to me, its one of my new years resolutions  and also allows me to give back to my community.