Tax season has started, and Community Partnership of the Ozarks (CPO) is offering free tax preparation services for qualifying individuals and families.
The services are IRS-certified and provided through CPO's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
Households or individuals who earn $67,000 or less in a year qualify for VITA and can receive help filing taxes, including W2s, retirement, disability, property tax credits and rental rebates. Last year, CPO helped file 6,100 tax returns, which resulted in money coming back to clients.
"Those refunds are things that can bring back economic growth to the community," said CPO Director of Financial Stability Programs Kelly Paparella. "It's exceptionally important to us to have this program. We have people who come back every year who've been with us longer than I've worked the program, and they rely on us being able to provide this professional service."
CPO is encouraging clients to schedule appointments online at vita417.as.me to make it easier to access services. Clients can also call or text 417-720-2000 to schedule an appointment. Scheduling appointments online lets participants pick times and locations that work best for them and helps CPO reach more clients. The website also provides a list of all the required documents for an appointment.
Besides ongoing appointments, CPO is hosting two walk-in "Tax-A-Palooza" community events in February and March.
"People don't have the ability to know what their appointment or what their future schedule is going to look like, we definitely want to fill the gap for those individuals who need to have walk-in services for tax preparation." Paparella said.
Last year, VITA clients received an average of $1,400 in EITC tax refunds, according to CPO. Due to the success of last year's event, CPO introduced a second new "Southside Tax-A-Palooza" event to reach more of the community. No appointment is required for either event.
"There's a lot of people who don't get tax documents, especially who are in retirement until March, so this will be an event for people — maybe our appointments are filling up fast — and this is a way for them to walk in and get served on that day." Paparella said.
The first Tax-A-Palooza event will be held at the Dream Center, 829 W Atlantic Street, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 28, and the second one will be on Mar. 21 at the Guaranty Bank at Farmers Park from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More free tax help
Two other organizations are currently offering free tax filing.
Drury University accounting students are offering free filing assistance through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.
The service is offered Mondays and Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. and runs through March 5 at the O'Reilly Enterprise Center at the corner of Central and Drury Lane.
Students will also offer help at the Tax-A-Palooza Community Event at the Springfield Dream Center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on February 21. Find out more here.
United Way Ozarks Region just launched its free tax filing program for the season. MyFreeTaxes.com lets U.S. tax filers who earned less than $89 thousand last year file their federal and state taxes online for free.
My Free Taxes is provided by United Way in partnership with VITA.
Michele Skalicky contributed to this story.
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