Temple Law to Sponsor “Super Saturdays” at Temple VITA Tax Site

January 27, 2012 - On Saturday, February 4th and 11th, Temple Law will sponsor "Super Saturdays" at the Temple VITA tax site.  With the assistance of The Campaign for Working Families and the School of Social Work, who have arranged for an extra room at the tax site, Director of Public Interest Programs Maureen Olives will supervise 6-8 Temple Law students in preparing taxes on those two days.  As Director Olives explains, “The goal of the effort is to increase the capacity of the Temple site during that critical period.  We hope to be able to increase returns prepared on those two days by 25 returns each.  Historically, we’ve had to turn many people away during the first few weeks of the tax preparation season, which can be devastating if they’ve already paid for a babysitter, or used carfare, or decided to take off work to get it done.  They may not be able to come back another time.”

VITA, or Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, is an IRS program that trains volunteer income tax preparers to assist low to moderate income taxpayers in the preparation of their returns.   The program is designed to make sure that eligible taxpayers are able to access special credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Credit for the Elderly or the Disabled and to offer them an alternative to for profit preparers who sometimes push predatory “refund anticipation loans.”