2021-Leaders-United-Quarterly-Q1-ReaderSpreads-v4 - Flipbook - Page 7
LET’S TALK TAXES
BUT WE COULDN’T DO IT ALONE
A Conversation with
VITA guru Im Cashen
Your support helps our neighbors keep more of what they earn,
access important credits, save for the future and connect to critical
financial services.
Im is a longtime member of United Way of
Greater Nashville’s VITA team and works to
ensure that our neighbors have the tools they
need during tax season.
Because of you...
In what ways has VITA shifted because
of the pandemic?
For the safety of volunteers, the public and the
staff, most of our traditional VITA sites will
not be open during the 2021 tax filing season.
Instead, we are partnering with CodeforAmerica
and its GetYourRefund.org platform to provide
a completely virtual way of filing taxes that is
secure and safe for taxpayers and volunteers
When the pandemic hit last March, what were
some of the first steps you and your volunteers
took to ensure you continued serving taxpayers?
When all the traditional VITA sites closed in midMarch of 2020, the VITA team began exploring
virtual options. In early April 2020, we connected
with a VITA coalition in Connecticut that shared
its virtual platform, using JotForm, with our team.
We were able to have a soft launch of Virtual VITA
using Jotform near the end of April and officially
launched live on May 1, 2020. In June 2020,
we were accepted into the pilot program
for GetYourRefund.org and went live with them
June 29, 2020. Virtual VITA remained open past
the July 15, 2020, tax filing deadline until
October 15, 2020.
Why are you so passionate about your work?
My passion for VITA comes from working with a
dedicated group of VITA volunteers who return
year after year to help taxpayers do one of their
least favorite and intimidating tasks, which is file
taxes. These volunteers spend hours studying
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Unite d Way o f Greater Nash vi l l e
tax law to pass IRS certification tests so that they
can share their knowledge with taxpayers and help
them with tax returns that are prepared accurately
and most beneficial to them.
What are some of the biggest barriers that your
clients, or taxpayers, face?
This season, the biggest barrier is finding free
tax help. There are only a few sites open and
many people may be fearful of trying Virtual VITA
or lack the technology to use Virtual VITA. The
GetYourRefund.org platform is secure and all
information is encrypted. We have 62 Virtual VITA
volunteers waiting to help taxpayers if they can just
overcome their barriers.
8,800
277
tax returns were
completed by
VITA volunteers
volunteers
completed returns
free of charge
$2.7M $13.5M
was returned to our
community through tax
preparation fees
in federal refunds
were brought back to
our community
How can community members support this
important work?
We would love to find organizations that would be
willing to partner with us to be intake sites. Intake
sites would provide the technology, i.e. tablets and
Wi-Fi, to use GetYourRefund.org. They would not
have to be IRS-certified because the volunteers
would only be helping taxpayers use the website
to answer questions and take photos of their
documents. This would help taxpayers overcome
the barriers due to lack of technology or their
discomfort with using technology.
U nited Way of Greater Nas h ville
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