Agency Details:

Family and Individual Self-Sufficiency Program

The Family and Individual Self-Sufficiency Program (Financial Stability and Independence Initiative) at HACBED helps working families and individuals keep more of their hard-earned income and strengthens their ability to achieve self-sufficiency.

The Program accomplishes this, in part, by performing outreach across the State regarding the existence of free tax assistance sites and valuable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit – a federal tax benefit for workers that in many cases can boost a family’s annual income by 30 to 40 percent. See section on the EITC below. The Program also coordinates and supports free tax assistance sites across the State which have been established by partnering organizations. The support offered by this Program to such sites includes volunteer recruitment and management, extensive outreach, advertising, coordination with 2-1-1, the information and referral system at Aloha United Way, client incentives, and much more. See “What The FISSP Will Do For You” section below.

Description:
The Program also actively recruits partners in the community willing to sponsor free tax assistance sites since expansion of such sites will enable more people to take advantage of this valuable service. During Tax Season 2007, the sites being assisted by this Program and AARP filed over 7,000 returns, obtained over $5.7 million in refunds, including nearly $1.9 million in EITC benefits, and saved taxpayers over $1 million in tax preparation fees. Since there are studies that show that for each $1.00 in refunds received, a taxpayer spends $1.50 to purchase goods and services, every dollar obtained for a taxpayer also boosts local businesses. Also, since federal tax refunds/credits are “new” money circulating in the economy, the general economy of the State also benefits through the collection of general excise taxes. Conversely, valuable monies are lost for every dollar of EITC and other credits that go unclaimed. It has been estimated that for Tax Year 2005, the failure of Hawaii taxpayers to claim the EITC resulted in a loss of over $9 million in income to the State of Hawaii.

The second important aspect of the Program is that it also works to link the free tax assistance services to financial literacy and asset building programs so that taxpayers will make wiser financial decisions in how they spend their money, including their refunds, and begin to build their assets.

History:
For the upcoming Tax Season 2009, several new sites are already planned for Oahu and the neighbor islands. Therefore, the Program is seeking volunteers to work at these sites, particularly volunteers interested in preparing basic tax returns. The Program is also seeking to create a stronger network between the free tax assistance effort and financial and asset building programs. We encourage individuals and organizations to get involved today! Contact the Program Coordinator at (808)381-0881 or by e-mail at stamanaha@hacbed.org

Contact person: Susan Tamanaha, Program Coordinator/Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

This opportunity is available at locations state-wide - you choose your location. Honolulu, HI 96817 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.hawaiitaxhelp.org

Last updated on December 17, 2009