Making tax season a little easier for our community

Tax season is stress-inducing for many families and individuals, especially those that are a part of the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed)* population. These are individuals and families one emergency away from falling into poverty. They represent 37% of Miami-Dade. Add to that another 21% already living in poverty and that number accounts for nearly 60% of our neighbors. 

For many, tax forms seem complicated to fill out and going to a professional tax preparer is usually costly and time consuming. But our United Way is a long-standing volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) partner in the community. For years, we’ve supported earned income tax credit (EITC) awareness and helped those families who qualify connect to professional (and free) tax preparation through MiamiTaxPros.com and onsite VITA providers. 

In addition to our United Way’s Center for Financial Stability (CFS) locations, this year, we will kick off our very own VITA site! For 2019, our VITA team will largely provide services through “tax days” at key locations – including the United Way Batchelor Campus offices, three Jackson Health System campuses and others throughout the community. Our first-year focus is on serving our colleagues and partners at their workplace, and on partnering with Mission United to serve our veterans. A calendar of events will be available soon. Stay tuned for more.

Want to be a part of the largest and most effective anti-poverty program in the US?  Become a volunteer tax preparer! Sign up here.

*The United Way ALICE Project (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) is a nationwide effort across 16 states to quantify and describe the number of households that are struggling financially.

2019-04-01T10:29:41-04:00 January 11th, 2019|