NH Earned Income Tax Credit

Being a new site, our goals were absolutely accomplished. Our main objective was to provide excellent customer service in a professional, well prepared environment. Although we only assisted roughly two dozen clients, each client was provided a great tax service.

As for the Greater Nashua Asset Building coalition, we surpassed our goals for this year. With the collaboration with AARP and their tax assistance at the Nashua Public Library, we as a community were able to serve many more clients than previous years while still providing excellent customer service.

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3. Budget (what is your budget for your site and source of dollars)

This tax season was accomplished without a budget, which was a challenge. We are hopeful that with grant money, we will be able to establish an operating budget that will include promotion of the program. We need to continue to reach clients that are unaware of the VITA program and the free services we provide.

4. 2005 VITA Results

Total # transmitted returns: 17
Total # accepted returns: 16
Total # EITC returns: 11

5. Hours of Operation

3:00pm to 7:00pm
01/20/2005-04/07/2005 Last Updated: 02/10/2005
THU 3 PM - 7 PM; E-FILE; 1/20,27,2/3,10,17,24,3/10,3/24,4/7
Language Assistance: ENGLISH
By Appointment Only - Contact Number: 603-594-8513

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6. # Volunteers

2 adult greeter volunteers
4 student greeter volunteers
2 tax preparer volunteers

7. # Volunteer Hours

58 hours for Tax Preparer volunteers
18 hours for greeter volunteers
= 76 total hours

8. Source of Volunteers

Mike Valcourt from Nashua Corporation
Debra Carnevale from IRS
Kay Golden from Corpus Christi
Trish Kay from SNHS Head Start
4 students from Academy of Finance - Nashua High South

9. # Clients Served

22 clients as of 4/7/05

10. $ Value of refunds

Total refund amount: $22,504
Total EITC refund amount: $13,774

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11. Additional $’s saved clients in tax return refund preparation (if you collected this information)

We did not collect this information but, many of our customers came in with H&R Block folders from previous year’s returns. So I assume that we have saved them money in providing the service free of charge.

Best Practices (this section looks at what worked best for your site)

There were a few details that worked best for our site:

Appointment only – Since this was our first year, it was critical to be well prepared for each client. Scheduling appointments allowed us to evaluate how many volunteers we needed on a given VITA night to give our clients the best service, as well as confirming with the client the documentation they needed to bring so that we could successfully prepare their taxes.
On-Site Coordination: This function was performed by me (Joy Barrett at the EOC), and enabled the program to run smoothly at our site. The coordinator is responsible for managing the client appointments, scheduling the volunteers, performing the necessary transmissions and report generation, presenting to groups for outreach, as well as providing overall volunteer and customer support.

12. Site Coordination (what made your site run smoothly and efficiently? How were you successful in reaching targeted clientele?)

As noted above, the responsibilities of the site coordinator ensure that the program runs smoothly at their location. As for outreach efforts, I attended Hispanic Network meetings, Nashua Academy workshops, included VITA information in the EOC newsletter, distributed our VITA flyer information to SNHS Head Start families, was interviewed on 142 Main Street - a TV13 program, posted VITA flyers in the Alds Street SNHS location where WIC, fuel assistance and other social service programs are offered to clients, presented with Gregg Woodes at a NIAC meeting, as well as assisted our coalition with press coverage in the Telegraph and Hippo newspaper.

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13. Volunteers (how did you recruit volunteers? What did you do to keep them working at your site?)

Our two tax preparer volunteers came from Gregg Woodes. They had worked in the VITA program in the past. As for the student volunteers, I am currently working with a Nashua High South, academy of finance professor to see how her students can provide tax preparation services next year. This year 4 (junior year) student were greeters. This gave them a “sneak preview” of how a VITA site works

As with any volunteers in any organization, if you value their time, provide support, and appreciation they will continue to come back and help.

14. Media/Marketing (what did you do in the area of media and marketing that increased awareness about your site, EITC, and asset building?)

In addition to the “hands-on” outreach by attending meetings, seminars and posting flyers, our coalition was given a great splash with a story in both the Nashua Telegraph and the Hippo. We also were interviewed on TV13 which is a local TV station that serves Nashua and surrounding towns. After each media splash, I received a noticeable increase in calls for tax appointments.

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15. Outreach (what other types of outreach activities were you involved in to enhance the effectiveness of your site?)

As noted in question 12… As for outreach efforts, I attended Hispanic Network meetings, Nashua Academy workshops, included VITA information in the EOC newsletter, distributed our VITA flyer information to SNHS Head Start families, was interviewed on 142 Main Street - a TV13 program, posted VITA flyers in the Alds Street SNHS location where WIC, fuel assistance and other social service programs are offered to clients, presented with Gregg Woodes at a NIAC meeting

16. Coalition Building (if you have a coalition, what made it successful?)

I completely believe that what makes the Greater Nashua Asset Building Coalition successful is the organizational diversity within our group. We have representatives from the following organizations that provide expertise in their fields:

The coalition is made up of the City of Nashua, Southern New Hampshire Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the AARP Tax-Aide Program, Nashua YMCA, Nashua Pastoral Care Center, United Way of Greater Nashua, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, Triangle Credit Union, and Legal Advice & Referral Center…as well as our new members for 2005/2006 - Corpus Christi Food Pantry and Assistance and Nashua High South.

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17. Future (what are your plans for the future [site expansion, asset building, etc.]? what will you do differently in the future?)

Currently we provide IDA information for clients. Jennifer Spencer from the Care Center, also a coalition member, attends VITA sessions to promote the IDA program as well as other financial literacy programs and classes. We hope to increase this outreach effort in the next year.

Other plans involve the possibility of offering free-file through our EOC VITA site. The VITA free file program would “enroll” clients into an evening class in which they will file their own tax return. Clients will have access to a PC loaded with the IRS contracted free file tax software. One volunteer facilitator would teach the class with the objective of completing each client’s tax return within one session. Multiple sessions would be scheduled for clients within the tax preparation session. This will promote self sufficiency by providing these clients with new skills and an outcome of an income tax return filed by the client, as well as minimizing the amount of volunteer tax preparers needed at each site. Other sites in the coalition would still offer the “one-on-one” service for clients who prefer that individual service. Currently Tax Wise is not a free file application within the VITA program, but we are hopeful that this is the next step for our VITA venture under the Greater Nashua Asset Building Coalition.

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