ANDREWS AFB, Md. –
Volunteers are ready to assist Team Andrews members with their taxes at the federal income Tax Center at the 316th Wing Legal Office.
Staffed by military members and civilians, the Tax Center offers free tax return assistance for single Active Duty, Reserve and Guard members, families, and retirees and dependents who meet certain financial criteria to include low- and mid-income families. Singles who earn less than $50,000 or married couples who earn less than $100,000 are encouraged to bring their returns to the Tax Center.
"We're anticipating crunch time at the end of March into early April so we encourage you to come in now while we have appointments available," said Staff Sgt. Valerie Nelson, 316th Wing Judge Advocate Office NCO in charge of general law and Tax Center coordinator."
Appointments are an hour and a half and scheduled at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Walk-ins are welcome on Fridays from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program tax preparers are trained during a week-long course or in online courses and are certified after passing three exams. Three to four volunteer tax preparers are scheduled for each time slot. "We get phone calls every day from people who are interested in getting their taxes done," said Sergeant Nelson. "In the first week we were open, we served 55 people. We see at least 12 people per day."
Team Andrews members can also go to Bolling AFB and Fort Meade to get their taxes done by military VITA program tax preparers at no charge.
Senior Master Sgt. Del Champ, Headquarters AFDW helicopter operations manager and a VITA volunteer for five years, said he likes to serve the base community. "I like to help out our younger Airmen," said Sergeant Champ. "This is one way for us, as senior leaders, to say we care for people. As senior leaders, we need to give back to our troops - and this is one way to do so."
Sergeant Nelson said Andrews volunteers are trained in basic, intermediate and military taxes.
For all appointments, taxpayers must bring military identification for themselves and their spouses, individual tax identification number, green card or visa for U.S. resident aliens and a social security card for all individuals listed on the return. They must also bring any and all documents with amounts of other income and other tax payments made or received in 2008, including state tax refunds received in 2008, last year's completed tax return, the child care provider's identification number, and bank documents with routing numbers and account numbers for direct deposit, which would be either a voided check or an official printout of bank information. If the taxpayer had a permanent change of station or permanent change in assignment in 2008, they must bring a travel voucher, receipts, move information and a W-2, if applicable. Taxpayers with a deployed spouse must have Power of Attorney.
For more information, call at 301-981-2042.