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Neighborhood Tax Centers Get Boost

For Immediate Release
October 16, 2008

Skillman Foundation Awards $720,000 ‘Community Change’ Grant
To Accounting Aid Society for Detroit Neighborhood Tax Centers
Centers Also to Establish Best Practices Nationwide                

DETROIT – For most low-income people, the annual receipt of personal income tax refunds and credits represents the largest cash infusion into their households in any given year. This makes tax season an ideal time for financially struggling families to learn about practical solutions and available services that can help them stretch a budget or save a dollar.  

            Combining free tax assistance with access to tools designed to improve economic self-sufficiency is the concept behind Neighborhood Tax Centers, launched over the last two years by Accounting Aid Society with funding from The Skillman Foundation.  

            So far, the Centers have served more than 3,000 residents in two of Detroit’s neediest neighborhoods, increased their household assets by $3 million through tax refunds and credits, and encouraged them to take advantage of asset-building services such as heat assistance application, credit counseling, home buyer training and foreclosure prevention, application assistance for education financial aid, and learning the value of Earned Income Tax Credits.     

          Accounting Aid’s initial success with the two Neighborhood Tax Centers has won the increased confidence and support of The Skillman Foundation, which has just announced a three-year $720,000 ‘community change’ grant to the agency for continuation of its centers -- the Southwest Neighborhood Tax Center and the Osborn Neighborhood Tax Center.  

            Early success of its Neighborhood Tax Centers has also earned Accounting Aid the support of the Chicago-based Center for Economic Progress (CEP), which has selected the agency as one of three organizations nationwide to participate in a pilot program that will develop best practices for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs throughout the country to promote asset-building opportunities at their tax sites.  The VITA project will be funded by a $25,000 grant to Accounting Aid as part of the CEP’s Financial Opportunities Project, which is supported jointly by the Ford Foundation and Citi Foundation.   
 
            Accounting Aid provides more than 80 percent of free VITA services in southeast Michigan, and 30 percent of all VITA services in the state. 

           “We are very honored to be receiving both the Skillman and CEP grants,” said Accounting Aid President Kathleen Hatke Aro. “Findings from the national project will be combined with other research done by the Center for Economic Progress to develop an operation guide and service delivery model to be used at VITA sites across the country.    

         “This is a great opportunity to enhance the work of The Skillman Foundation and Accounting Aid Society to support low and moderate income families in southwest Detroit and Osborn, while producing best practices that will increase the use of asset-building tools by families nationally.”    

         In 2008, Accounting Aid Society provided free tax assistance to more than 12,500 low and moderate income households, a 50 percent increase over 2007. Through the agency’s help, $10.8 million in tax refunds and credits were received. 
 
         The Neighborhood Tax Centers, which are open year-round, are part of Accounting Aid’s mix of tax assistance services for low and moderate income households in southeast Michigan.

         The agency also operates:    
         Tax Season Tax Sites,  January through April, tax services by more than 600 trained volunteers at over 25 locations in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties;  
           Homebound Tax Program, provides correspondence-based volunteer tax services for seniors and disabled residents unable to visit a tax site during the regular January through April tax season;   
        Summer Tax Program for low and moderate income households who did not meet current or past year deadlines or need to amend returns;   
  Low-Income Tax Clinic, a year-round program with dual purposes of representation and referral for low-income households and English Second Language outreach and education for those whose primary language is not English;  
        VITA Training and Certification, the only comprehensive training program in Michigan that offers customized classroom instruction in federal, state and local taxes as well as hands-on computer lab training for the IRS-designated tax preparation software;    
         Centers for Working Families, tax support for four pilot Centers for Working Families; and      Tax Preparation and Planning for the Self-Employed in partnership with the Center for Economic Development’s National Self-Employment Tax Initiative, developing best practice tools to be used at VITA programs for self-employed clients. 

            Since 1976, Accounting Aid Society has returned more than $157 million to low and moderate income households in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties.  

           The agency represents one of the most successful long-standing collaborations in southeast Michigan. More than 600 individuals join 100 nonprofit organizations, universities, corporations and government agencies each year to collaborate with Accounting Aid in assisting low and moderate income neighbors to receive valuable assets and improve their economic security. In addition, more than half of the agency’s expenses are donated products and services, including over 14,000 hours of volunteer service.  

         Created in 1960, The Skillman Foundation is a private philanthropy whose chief aim is to help develop good schools and good neighborhoods for children. Though grants are made throughout metropolitan Detroit, most grants are directed at six Detroit neighborhoods – Southwest Detroit (Vernor and Chadsey/Condon) Brightmoor, Osborn, Central and Cody/Rouge – and towards innovative and successful schools throughout the city of Detroit.  

           The Center for Economic Progress, founded in 1990, encourages self-sufficiency and promotes prosperity among working families in Illinois and as the lead organization of the National Community Tax Coalition.