New Haven Independent

Probably not too many people are excited about filing their taxes, but IRS representative Jodonna Powell said her job is to help people, not harass them. She spoke at Centro San Jose Wednesday at an event sponsored by New Life Corporation.

New Life is the lead organization in New Haven and West Haven for VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. It provides free tax preparation help to individuals earning less than $40,000 a year. Families earning less than $40,000 are eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, which both New Haven State Sens. Marty Looney (pictured) and Toni Harp extolled.

Powell said the federal program, created in 1975, is an income transfer program for the working poor that was designed in part to make work more appealing than welfare. Since “welfare as we know it” disappeared in 1996, now the EITC serves as a support to low-income earners.

Looney has been in the forefront, supported by Harp and others, in trying to get the General Assembly to adopt a state EITC, as many other states have done, especially since Connecticut has such a high cost of living. The proposed state program would be funded at 20 percent of the federal program, at an estimated cost of $40 million.

“The earned income tax credit brings miliions of dollars back into the community for people who are living on very, very narrow margins and struggling to maintain financial independence,” he said.

Harp said of the EITC: “Over $4.8 million new dollars have come into this region [through the EITC]. That is a lot of money. It has stimulated economic growth. But not only that, it is an income transfer program that has helped improve the lives of people in our community. It has helped them build assets so they can begin to look at things like owning their own homes, providing enhanced educational opportunities for their children.” She added that she always wondered, once the EITC began, “why all these national tax companies are coming into the inner city,” including hucksters who patrol city streets dressed like the Statue of Liberty. Click here to hear her explanation.

Ariel Martinez (pictured), executive director of New Life Corporation, said VITA stands ready to help all low-income filers, including wage-earners who may not be citizens. He said last year the VITA program helped 2,060 individuals and families, of whom about 20 percent were undocumented immigrants. Those individuals can get an ITIN, or Individual Taxpayer ID Number. “It’s not a legal identification card,” he said, “but they can use it to get a refund and do their tax returns.” Click here to hear more on how it doesn’t necessarily put people on a path to citizenship, but it could help, if and when the federal government enacts immigration reform.

Martinez said some volunteers come from college accounting programs, but most live in the community they serve. They undergo ten hours of computer training (with laptops, software and training materials provided by the IRS) and 20 to 30 more hours of practice before tackling their first real tax return. Last year they helped those 2,000 filers obtain a total of $1,289,163 in EITC returns and $3,041,952 in federal returns. And the program claims it helped its clients save $515,000 in preparation fees.

Electronic filing of 2007 returns begins this Friday, with refunds expected about two weeks later.

New Life runs four sites in New Haven, from January 7 through April 15. Click here for a schedule, or call 777-1319.