DES MOINES, Iowa — It's time for everyone's favorite time of the year: tax season.
You have until April 15 to file, but if you're someone who is looking for some free help when it comes to preparing to file, you might be in luck.
VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, is a service from the IRS designed to help certain people access free income tax prep services.
For Iowans, the program is run by the Iowa Center for Economic Success.
They directly operate 11 VITA tax sites, but oversee and partner with 21 organizations that, in total, operate 80 tax sites across the state.
VITA tax sites offer free tax help for people who generally make $64,000 or less, people with disabilities, the elderly, and limited-English speaking taxpayers.
The Iowa Center operates six sites in the Des Moines area.
Karla Evans, Director of Tax Services for the Iowa Center, oversees the Iowa VITA coalition.
She said the program is a great way to make sure everyone has an equitable opportunity to file their taxes.
"Well, taxes are scary to people, that's what it comes down to,” Evans said. “We see all kinds of people who come in and say 'Ugh, I’m just afraid to do my taxes,' and they're afraid they're going to make a mistake. I look at VITA as being the compassionate arm of the IRS. They're really here just to help people."
Evans also said the VITA program helps ensure people get as much of their tax return as possible.
“What we think people deserve, if you have those simple tax returns, like maybe a couple W-2's, maybe you have a small business and a 1099, those sorts of easy returns, we don't like to see people paying their hard-earned money to go out and get their taxes prepared,” Evans said.
Tax services through VITA are conducted by volunteers, who complete online training provided by the IRS, pass a test based on the training and commit to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of taxpayer information.
According to the Iowa Center, many of their volunteers are retired CPAs, college students, financial planners, corporate finance executives and others who enjoy working with numbers.