BIENESTAR

2011 INCOME TAX REPORT

CAMPAIGN

     Without the assistance of United Way of the Columbia Willamette and CASH Oregon and our incredible volunteers, Bienestar would have not been so successful. We were able to provide free Income Tax Return preparation once again for our residents as well as for the community thanks to generous grants from United Way, CASH Oregon and Wal-Mart.  This was our third year preparing tax returns, but our first year in the VITA program. We were once again the only agency in Washington County providing families with tax Identification Numbers and bilingual services.

This tax season we had 14 volunteers, including Javier Urenda and Gracie Garcia(Co-Coordinator), Maria Moreno and  Juan Carlos Aguilar (Counselors), two Promotores, Marisela Iniquez (Counselor) and Luisa Manriquez (Intaker),  a youth resident, Gustavo Martinez (Intaker), a board member, Janice Morgan (Counselor), Roy Scholls, Edlin Santoya and Zenon Rauda (Counselors) and  Edgar Rodriguez, Laura Rodriguez  and Teresa Martinez (Intakers). 

Seven of our volunteers were returning tax preparers and Intakers and seven were new volunteers.  Four preparers were Bienestar staff, two were Bienestar Promotores, one was a Bienestar Board member, and one a Bienestar resident.  The additional volunteers were members of the community.   All of the Co-Coordinators and counselors trained for 40 hours by CASH Oregon and passed an exam to be certified volunteer preparers, and the Intakers were trained by Javier Urenda and Gracie Garcia.

    We would like to thank United Way Program Officer Roserria Roberts for her help in securing grant funding through United Way and through Wal-Mart.  We received wonderful support from Rob Justus, Executive Director of CASH Oregon in the form of training, equipment, support with the venue and with a generous grant that came through CASH Oregon from the IRS.

     Bienestar started services on February 1 and ended services on April 18, 2011 at Centro Cultural in Cornelius. We were open every Tuesday from5-9pm, Thursday from 5-9pm, Friday from 5-9pm and Saturday from 9-3pm. Although Bienestar ended preparing income taxes on April 18, we continue having families coming to us with questions and follow up regarding their ITIN numbers.

      Bienestar was able to prepare a total of 423 returns this year, compared to last year with 241 returns. We assisted families in earning tax credits in a total amount of $680,709, for an average of $1,609.

BENEFITS:

·         Partnership with UW of the Columbia Willamette, CASH Oregon.

·         This was our third year preparing returns, we were more experienced.

·          We operated only at one site

·         CASH Oregon was able to loan us new laptops and a printer.

·         Seven of our volunteers returned this year.

·         We had a total of 14 volunteers.

·         We had the assistance of CASH Oregon and received $8,015.97 in grant funds from them.

·         We received grant funds from United Way and Wal-Mart in the amount of $12,500.

·         The Wal-Mart grant also provided support so that we were able to educate families on Healthy Kids and were able to refer them to Centro Cultural to apply for health insurance coverage for children.

BARRIERS:

·         The location was not a ideal place, it was too cold, people going in and out of the building and it was not a secure place to leave supplies and equipment.

·         The IRS’ online Tax Wise system didn’t always work, trying to call them and getting answers was time consuming.

STATUS:

·         Filing Status:

o   Single-  93 (22%)

o   Married Filing Jointly-  276   (65%)

o   Head of Household-  52 (12%),

o   Widower -  1 (<.5%),

o    Married Filing Separate -    1 (<.5%)

·         Average Gross Income: The Average Gross Income was  $22,494.15 per family.

·         Residents vs. Non-Residents:104 (25%) families who did their returns were Bienestar residents and 319 (75%) families were non-resident.

·         Federal Tax Refund: 399 (94%) families received refunds totaling $787,782, an average of $1,974 per family.

·         Federal Tax owed:  24 (6%) families paid $22,303, an average of $929 per family.

·         State Tax Refund: 288 (68%) families received refunds totaling $106,218, an average of $369 per family.

·         State Tax Owed: 135 (32%) families paid a total of $45,534.00, an average of $337 per family

·         Earned Income Tax Credit: 83 (20%) out of 423 families received the EITC totaling $204,385, an average of $2,462 per family.

·         Child Tax Credit: 235 (56%) out of 423 families received the Child Tax Credit totaling $361,979, an average of $1,540 per family.

·         Efile vs Paper: 369 (87%) returns were filed electonrically and 54 (13%) returns were paper filed.

·         ITIN: 37 (9%) families were provided with tax identification numbers so that they could file their returns and within those families we provided 76 individuals ITINs.

·         Work Pay Credit: 218 (56%) families received the Work Pay Credit totaling $117,945, an average of $541 per family.

·         Education Credit: 15 (4%) families received the Education Credit totaling $8,615, an average of $574 per family.

 The attached Survey results analysis provides additional information about the people we served in the 2011 Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign. 

Respectfully submitted by Gracie Garcia

RESULTS OF

UNITED WAY/CASH OREGON QUESTIONNAIRE

Note: Not all participants receiving services agreed to complete the questionnaire