KALAMAZOO – This tax season, United Way of South Central Michigan’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Shared Services team has added Kalamazoo County to its coverage area, bringing the total number of counties covered to nine.
VITA provides no-cost, high-quality tax services to households making $60,000 or less, and relies on dozens of trained volunteers to serve as tax preparers, intake specialists and community resource volunteers. In a typical tax season, VITA serves 1,500 clients in Kalamazoo County, resulting in $1.9 million in tax refunds and more than $500,000 million saved in tax prep fees.
“The VITA program is a great opportunity for the United Way of South Central Michigan to do what we do best—bring together skilled and passionate volunteers, tax experts, community partners and monetary resources to work together for ALICE families,” Alyssa Stewart, Chief Impact Officer for UWSCMI, said. “VITA puts real money in the pockets of hardworking ALICE households, allowing them to save, reduce their debt, or just create some room to breathe in their monthly budget.”
Cheri Puryear, who has been involved with VITA for 14 years and is heading into her 10th year of managing the program, will stay on to provide continuity and leadership for volunteers and clients. The program was previously provided in Kalamazoo County by Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency.
“It has been an honor to support the work of the VITA program over the past several years,” said Sarah Mansberger, Executive Director of Workforce & Community Initiatives for Kalamazoo RESA. “United Way has long provided philanthropic support for the success of VITA locally. The transfer of operational responsibilities to United Way of South Central Michigan brings Kalamazoo-based VITA services into an ecosystem of VITA experts providing tax assistance across the region. We are thrilled for the additional resources and network of expertise that the move will bring to bear on this critical program benefitting so many households in our community.”
Volunteers Needed
VITA is currently seeking many volunteers for the 2023 tax season to increase the number of clients they’re able to serve. In 2022, more than 3,000 calls for appointments went unfulfilled.
Volunteers need no experience; training is offered and results in an IRS Certification. The training takes between 15-20 hours between early November and the end of January, and includes a mix of on-demand and in-person pieces, with content dependent on the role chosen. The time commitment during tax season is an average of one four-hour shift per week from Jan. 24 through April 15. While the program has site locations in Kalamazoo, Comstock, Portage, Schoolcraft and Vicksburg, a virtual system also allows for volunteers to work from home.
“We are currently looking for intake workers, greeters, tax preparers, and we could always use interpreters and people with more experience to do quality reviews,” Puryear said. “We’d like to see all volunteers complete the training before tax season begins, toward the end of January.”
A volunteer serving four hours per week throughout the full season will save clients $7,280 in tax prep fees and help them access $66,160 in refunds, according to Puryear.
“The more volunteers we get, the more help we can provide,” she said.
Anyone interested in learning more about volunteering with VITA can get started at micauw.org/vita-volunteers or contact Cheri at 517-258-1447 or c.puryear@uwscmi.org.