CHENANGO COUNTY – The Earned Income Tax Credit Partnership Committee came together in 2004 with the goal of helping low to moderate income taxpayers file their returns and to bring federal tax credit money back to the community. After its fourth year, the committee has helped to bring more than $1.8 million back to Chenango County.
On Friday, the EITC Committee held its annual luncheon celebration, honoring this year’s volunteers and announcing the results of the 2008 tax season.
The EITC Partnership Committee is made up of volunteers from area non-profit agencies, businesses and students at local colleges. The volunteers receive training from the Internal Revenue Service and provide free tax preparation services for low to moderate income tax payers. Approximately 37 volunteers donated more than 1,720 hours of their time to the program this year. According to Gary Quarella of Opportunities for Chenango, this year, the EITC Partnership Committee expanded their efforts by partnering with local agencies in not only Chenango but also Madison County.
The Madison-Chenango EITC Committee filed 1,284 tax returns in the 2008 tax season. In 2007, approximately 500 returns were filed in Chenango County and 600 in Madison County, but the numbers were higher than usual as a number of senior citizens filed returns in order to be eligible for stimulus funds.
“In 2008, we returned $829,500 in Earned Income Tax Credit funds to 407 clients,” Quarella said. “Of those 407 EITC families, 92 percent were repeat customers.” The EITC funds make up only a portion of total refunds received. EITC customers in the Chenango and Madison areas saw combined tax refunds of $1.8 million.
In addition to the tax preparation services, the EITC Committee also held financial literacy workshops to help their customers. More than 200 people attended one of the financial literacy workshops.
Quarella credited the work of the Chenango United Way and Executive Director Elizabeth Monaco. “Elizabeth was the mastermind behind the idea for the program. She brought the idea to Chenango County,” Quarella said.
Monaco gave the credit to the volunteers and organizations who took the idea and ran with it. “This is an example of true collaboration,” Monaco said.
When the program first began in 2004, Monaco said the committee filed a total of 41 tax returns and, in collaboration with AARP, brought $43,000 in tax returns back to the county. “At the time, we thought that was amazing,” Monaco said. “We’ve definitely seen growth since then,” she said giving credit to the efforts of the partner agencies at the table.
An increased marketing effort helped make the program bigger and better this year. The committee received donations to increase their publicity campaign, creating 13,000 payroll stuffers, 250 posters, and allowing the committee to run 368 television commercials and 15 print ads. “We couldn’t do this without you,” Monaco said to the volunteers. “I’m amazed and excited to see the numbers continue to go up.”
Quarella thanked several organizations for supporting the Madison-Chenango EITC partnership in 2008, including: The IRS, Colgate University, Madison County Community Action Partnership, Madison County Department of Social Services, Opportunities for Chenango, Manpower, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Chenango County Department of Social Services, Chenango United Way, AARP Tax Aid, Madison and Chenango County Retired and Senior Volunteer Programs, Chenango County Farm Bureau, Oneida Savings Bank, GHS Federal Credit Union and United Way of New York State.