More help is available for those in the Austin-area who may be struggling with their income tax returns.
The South Austin office is now the eighth community financial center in the Austin area. Foundation Communities operates the centers.
Within the first 10 minutes of the doors opening Wednesday morning, several people came in to get help with their taxes.
The assistance is free for low and moderate income families. For individuals, that means $25,000 a year or less. For families, it’s $50,000 a year or less.
The center has offered this type of help for the past five years now. Over the past four years, the community financial centers have filed 50,000 tax returns. This year -- with the new, expanded office -- they expect to file 20,000 tax returns.
Most of the work is done by volunteers who train in tax preparation and work alongside tax professionals.
They’re able to save so much money,” said Carol Sullivan, volunteer. “They don't have to pay to have their taxes prepared. That's a huge, huge thing. Some of these clients were spending $200 -$250 to have their taxes done and we, we save them all of that money."
The main goal of these centers is to help save people those fees tacked onto tax returns when they're filed at tax businesses.
Foundation Communities says in one year where they filed 17,000 tax returns, they saved their clients a total of $2.6 million in tax preparation fees.
