GSB Students Particpate in the Tax Assistance Program
Over $80,000 Returned to Hyde Park Families
by Lory Carbajal Van Ness & Carin Nelson, '08
Issue date: 5/3/07 Section: GSB Life
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Taxes. We all love to hate them. According to Ben Franklin, the only other certain thing in life is death. How nice.
As the filing deadline for US Federal Taxes came and went over two weeks ago now, we hope everyone has either filed their return or filed for an extension. You're a little late if you haven't.
Personal returns aside, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank the group of individuals at the GSB that volunteered their time this tax season to help some of the less fortunate families in our community. When we're all banking on making six-figure salaries when we graduate, it can sometimes be easy to forget that few people are as fortunate as we are. According to figures compiled by the Tax Assistance Program of Chicago (TAP), almost 950,000 households in the metropolitan Chicago area earn less than $35,000 a year, and nearly 360,000 of them earn less than $15,000 a year. It's a sobering thought to realize that there are families of four subsiding on less than what many of us will make at our summer internships.
While the federal government offers these low-income families tax breaks such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit, both of which are refundable credits, only a small fraction of the families eligible actually receive the full benefit. Many fail to file altogether and let Uncle Sam hang onto money that is rightfully theirs, and those that do file often wind up paying tax-preparation companies high fees to do so. At the same time, they're enticed with "money-now" or "rapid refund" loans - financial products offered by these firms that carry interest rates upwards of 200% APR. Ouch.
This is where TAP comes in. Since 1995, the not-for-profit program has organized volunteer professionals to provide free tax preparation services to the working poor. While the numbers aren't yet in for this tax season, the 2005 tax season was a record-breaker - the program returned over $23.4 million to the 10,660 families it served. The 2006 season is expected to easily surpass that.
Nine people from the GSB contributed to this year's effort: Ori Bash, Stacie Caine, Lory Carbajal Van Ness, Brent and Gina DelVecchio, Manu Harish, Chuks Iyasele, Carin Nelson, and Joan Spiotto.
While we may have been a small group, our impact was not. By our estimates, we returned over $80,000 to families in the Hyde Park Area. Not bad for a few Saturday mornings of work.
On behalf of TAP and the families that we served, thank you to all of you.
For more information about the Tax-Assistance Program and how you can get involved next year, visit www.taxassistance.org.
As the filing deadline for US Federal Taxes came and went over two weeks ago now, we hope everyone has either filed their return or filed for an extension. You're a little late if you haven't.
Personal returns aside, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank the group of individuals at the GSB that volunteered their time this tax season to help some of the less fortunate families in our community. When we're all banking on making six-figure salaries when we graduate, it can sometimes be easy to forget that few people are as fortunate as we are. According to figures compiled by the Tax Assistance Program of Chicago (TAP), almost 950,000 households in the metropolitan Chicago area earn less than $35,000 a year, and nearly 360,000 of them earn less than $15,000 a year. It's a sobering thought to realize that there are families of four subsiding on less than what many of us will make at our summer internships.
While the federal government offers these low-income families tax breaks such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit, both of which are refundable credits, only a small fraction of the families eligible actually receive the full benefit. Many fail to file altogether and let Uncle Sam hang onto money that is rightfully theirs, and those that do file often wind up paying tax-preparation companies high fees to do so. At the same time, they're enticed with "money-now" or "rapid refund" loans - financial products offered by these firms that carry interest rates upwards of 200% APR. Ouch.
This is where TAP comes in. Since 1995, the not-for-profit program has organized volunteer professionals to provide free tax preparation services to the working poor. While the numbers aren't yet in for this tax season, the 2005 tax season was a record-breaker - the program returned over $23.4 million to the 10,660 families it served. The 2006 season is expected to easily surpass that.
Nine people from the GSB contributed to this year's effort: Ori Bash, Stacie Caine, Lory Carbajal Van Ness, Brent and Gina DelVecchio, Manu Harish, Chuks Iyasele, Carin Nelson, and Joan Spiotto.
While we may have been a small group, our impact was not. By our estimates, we returned over $80,000 to families in the Hyde Park Area. Not bad for a few Saturday mornings of work.
On behalf of TAP and the families that we served, thank you to all of you.
For more information about the Tax-Assistance Program and how you can get involved next year, visit www.taxassistance.org.
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