The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program or VITA is back to help our clients get income tax filing done for FREE!
Provided through a partnership with the United Way and GRACE, VITA is designed to help get income tax returns prepared and securely submitted to the IRS at no cost…but we need your help to do it.
As difficult as last year was, with God’s guidance and community support, the GRACE programs never ceased functioning. Overall, we were able to serve more than double the amount of families and individuals that we served the prior year. That was over 11,000 individuals in need who received much needed support during a difficult year at best! Specifically for our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services which were disrupted substantially due to Covid, we were able to complete 260 returns and place over $550,000 into the hands of the people who earned it!
It is hard to believe that the time for VITA is back and we would love your help with this amazing program!
Our GRACE site will be a drop-off site…similar to how we handled it last year when COVID-19 reared its ugly head. Taxpayers will schedule an appointment time to drop off documents here at GRACE. Taxpayers will remain in their vehicle at all times and will not enter the building. Documents will be copied and returned to the taxpayer. Volunteer tax preparers will then prepare the tax return and the family/individual will return to the site to pick up their completed returns.
The decision to handle it this way was made by the United Way and the City of Ft. Worth in an effort to put safety measures in place to protect the taxpayer, staff, and volunteers providing VITA services. In addition, GRACE continues heightened protocols to protect individuals within GRACE facilities. This includes wearing masks when moving or within 6 feet of another person, social distancing, sign-in with temperature requirements, etc. We have followed the CDC guidelines from the start and will continue to do so as we see what tomorrow brings!
So, will you please consider being a part of this valuable service? Information is detailed on the United Way website. All training this year is online.
Please feel free to contact our Chief Program Officer if you have any questions or want to discuss in more detail the role volunteers will play with VITA this year.
