Tax Program Featured in Sioux Falls Argus-Leader

Jan. 12, 2010

The Sioux Falls Argus-Leader featured a story about The Harvest Initiative's groundbreaking tax preparation program.

The article first ran on January 12, 2010. A link to the article can be found here

The Harvest Initiative is helping community members prepare their tax returns this week and will continue the program through April 15.

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.