Halfway There!

Keep up the good work!

~~~  Original Message ~~~

First, we want to thank each of you for your dedication and commitment to make this a banner year for return production.  SPEC’s goal is not only to reach 4 million returns for Filing Season 2018, but also serve more taxpayers and touch more lives by offering as many free tax preparation options as possible.  We are confident and poised to accomplish great things this filing season with your assistance.

To help track our progress, we have developed weekly projections to determine where we should be in relation to our 4.0 goal.  Each week this message will be updated with our progress and promote SPEC’s theme: SPEC 4.0, Watch us Grow!

For the week ending 3/4/2018, 356,317 returns were projected to be completed.  We reached an actual count of 313,542 and are almost at the 1.5 million mark. Our cumulative return count is 1,468,961.

While the actual count is below the SPEC projection, there is still time to narrow the gap!

If you have any ideas on ways to help this initiative, we would love to hear from you! Some of you may consider extended hours or days.  Every little bit helps!

Thanks for your engagement and all you are doing to provide free tax assistance to the taxpayers in your community!

SPEC Headquarters

The following PDF is the first of many updates on your suggestions.  This document will be updated periodically with new suggestions and responses.  As we move out of tax season into planning season, it will also be updated with an indicator of the suggestions that will be able to implement for the next filing season.

What’s Trending:

• Make AGI visible
• Ability to enter repeatable items (i.e. Interest, dividends) more efficiently
• Display Calculated Age

Don’t see your suggestion…don’t worry…suggestions will be added to the list as we pull them.

Don’t see a response next to your suggestion…we are reviewing each suggestion and will provide a response.

Click here to view PDF

The link will launch a Brainshark video with instructions on how to view the file.

Thank you Rhonda T for sharing this awesome story.

Under the sponsorship of Heart of West Michigan United Way, Kent County Tax Credit Coalition (KCTCC) has been offering VITA service in Western Michigan since 2004. Over the years KCTCC has managed to retain an average of 150 – 160 volunteers each year, for 2018 KCTCC has a total of 227 dedicated volunteers working at 12 sites. When Brenda B., Program Manager of KCTCC was asked what she believes contributes to the success of their volunteer retention she replied “ We try to keep it exciting for our volunteers”.

With help from their marketing department, workplace campaign and, donor relations Heart of West Michigan United Way has been able to advertise and recruit using a variety of sources including flyers, coupons, bus signs, bill boards, and social media to name a few. This year’s big hit was the use of beverage coasters advertising Free Tax Preparation. “The coasters were distributed throughout Kent County wherever people gathered.  We handed them out in churches, stores, restaurants, on the street and, even bars so I was told” laughed Brenda. Volunteers are also involved in the recruitment process; with the support of local athletic teams volunteers can win event tickets by recruiting other volunteers and having their names entered into drawings. Volunteers have won tickets for Grand Rapids Griffins (Hockey) and Grand Rapids Drive (Basketball) games.

Many thanks to everyone involved in the Heart of West Michigan United Way / Kent County Tax Credit Coalition VITA Program for a Job Well Done!

The returns will be put in maintenance mode at 5:00 am on Monday, March 26th to apply a series of updates.  The updates are scheduled to include:

• Carry Forward of Child Provider information for Form 2441 (Issue ID 989)
• Added the ability to enter IP PIN when completing a 1040PR (Issue ID 1480)
• Correction to requirement on Foreign Earned Compensation (Issue ID 1528)
• Change made to allow Combat Zone election to stay selected after re-opening the return (Issue ID  1705)

The following PDF is the first of many updates on your suggestions.  This document will be updated periodically with new suggestions and responses.  As we move out of tax season into planning season, it will also be updated with an indicator of the suggestions that will be able to implement for the next filing season.

Our goal is to implement as many suggestions as possible, however, we will not be able to implement all suggestions for the upcoming filing season.  Even if we are not able to implement a suggestion for the upcoming filing season.

We will also be indicating if we will not be implementing a suggestion and why.

Don’t see your suggestion…don’t worry…suggestions will be added to the list as we pull them.

Don’t see a response next to your suggestion…we are reviewing each suggestion and will provide a response.

Click here to view PDF

The link will launch a Brainshark video with instructions on how to view the file.

Bert has been a volunteer for 25 years.  Thank you for your volunteer service.  Bert was featured in an article written by Jenny Sparks/ Loveland Reporter-Herald

Thank you Harry and Rebecca for sharing

Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary of being a VITA volunteer.  Thank you for your volunteer service.

Recognized by Fox 4 as a “Hometown Hero”

Click here to view the video and news article.

Thank you Pennie C from United Way of Tarrant County for sharing this wonderful story.