Harvest Initiative To Provide Groundbreaking Tax Preparation Service

Nov. 18, 2009

The Harvest Initiative is pleased to announce that it will provide free tax preparation service in Fort Thompson during the upcoming tax season. The organization will host a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service.

Through the partnership with the IRS, The Harvest Initiative is able to efficiently prepare income taxes for individuals and electronically file the returns at no cost to the individual. All of the volunteers and Harvest Initiative staff members will be trained and certified through the IRS program to prepare basic tax returns.

The main purpose of the program is to enable community members to access and retain tax incentives such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Studies of Buffalo County indicate that over 60% of EITC-eligible tax filers are losing significant portions of their return to high-cost tax preparation services and predatory Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs).

To meet the needs of community members who are unbanked, The Harvest Initiative has partnered with Advent- Affordable Financial Solutions to allow individuals to have their return deposited onto an FDIC insured, prepaid MasterCard*.

For more information, to schedule an appointment, or to find out about volunteer opportunities, please call The Harvest Initiative at 888-481-9847.

*The Get It Prepaid MasterCard® is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to license from MasterCard International Incorporated. The Bancorp Bank; member FDIC. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated.