National Tax Prep/Education Team Conference Calls and Meetings
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Minutes from the 11/01/2007 Conference Call
Participating: Jane Schuchardt, Andrew Zumwalt, Dean Miner, Joanne Bankston, and Vickie Hadley
Facilitator and Team Leader: Robin Taylor
Survey Update:
Western Region: Dean followed up and had results sent directly to Suzann. Suzann wasn’t available to participate, so no further information was available.
Southern & 1890 Institutions: Joanne didn’t think she completed the follow up
Web site:
Andrew led the discussion on the web site currently at <a href="http://extension.missouri.edu/hes/taxed/natinal.htm">http://extension.missouri.edu/hes/taxed/natinal.htm</a> Suzanne will host on her site once completed.
Corrections: Links to states in regions needs updated
Hot link needed to New Hampshire web site
Add Purpose Statement (This web site is a resource for states that support the National Project – Tax Preparation & Education. Participating states will be solicited for information to measure the effectiveness of the program.) Edit as needed
Add Model Extension Programs (Jane will forward the 2/2/07 e-mail to the team to update before Andrew adds to the web page) Corrections are needed by the end of the day on Tuesday, November 6
Add National Committee Tax Coalition link (if approval granted)
Change wording – Initiative to Project
AFCPE presentation:
Joanne has 5 minutes to present: (limit to 2-3 power point slides)
Work of National Tax Preparation and Education Leadership Team
Goals of project
Resource materials available
Survey conducted and potential survey in the future (discuss with Suzanne so there isn’t duplication of efforts)
Inquire – participation in tax preparation and education by attendees? Interest in participation? Needs to participate in tax preparation and education?
Web page address
Handouts: Center of Budget and Policy Priorities 2006 tax year kits – 2007 tax year kits available prior to Thanksgiving
IRS brochures on EITC sent by Robin Taylor
URL for tax web site
Andrew questioned Robin on the CADE system for tax preparation with a 48 hour tax refund return. Robin will follow up as he was not familiar with this system.
For the future:
Inservice training on resources using a webinar or Breeze technology for a “Show and Tell” by team members of model extension programs and success stories with power point presentations, video clips, etc.
Next Conference Call: 2 p.m. eastern time, Monday, April 28, 2008
Call in-number: 1.866.606.4717
Access Code: 3365914
Agenda: Accomplishments of past, Needs in the future, potential inservice training, placement of resources on eXtension
Thank you Joanne for making a presentation on behalf of the team at AFCPE pre conference.
Secretary for the day,
Vickie J. Hadley, CFCS
Minutes from the 09/06/2007 Conference Call
Participating: Andrew Zumwalt, Dean Miner, Suzann Knight, Vickie Hadley, Joanne Bankston, Robin Taylor, Jim Terry, Jane Schuchardt
Facilitator and Team Leader: Robin Taylor, IRS
Survey update (Suzann) --
Purpose -- What states involved and how involved –
16 states responded; do not know name of states (survey did not collect cookies); know 8 of states – MN, SD, IN, MO, GA, KY, NH, NC (could be 1890 and 1862), possibly Iowa, possibly PA, FL or AL
12 respondents said they publicize EITC (equal state and county)
20-100 percent of counties publicized the EITC program
Audiences – rural, community agencies, businesses and employers
Advertise – newsletter, radio and flier, workshops
Coordination – half do and half do not (AARP, IRS, Community Action, local government, daycare centers)
Tax prep – 9 yes
Free tax prep site – 7 yes
Volunteers – 50% yes
Role of volunteers – tax preparers, greeters, other
Partner w/ asset-building coalition – 50% yes
Financial education – 13 yes
How education provided – fliers, workshops, displays, one-on-one
Models – 50% provided models; see excel sheet from Suzann
Linking to financial services – 75%
IDA – 14 yes
Promote EITC – 75% yes
ACTION: Suzann check with Maryland and PA
JoAnne check with Florida and Alabama
Suzann get info to Dean RE collecting data from West
Purpose of work --
Publicize models and related successes
Needs several success stories;
Newspaper is #1 way to publicize; provide 2-3 different newspaper articles
Poverty data shows need; can increase disposable income with tax credits
Resource available from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; need to order
National initiative for United Way (Financial Stability initiative)
Could provide EITC kits and IRS information at pre-conference at AFCPE;
ACTION: Suzann will get kits; Robin will get IRS packets; both bring to AFCPE pre-conference
Andrew received $110,000 grant to do MoTax “in a box” from CFP Board; will take three years to complete
Develop web site of tools for extension educators --
Robin will lead to put together tools; Andrew will assist – develop by October 29; review by national team by November 2nd;get to Suzann – place on the <a href="http://www.nheitc.org/">www.nheitc.org</a>; announced at Extension pre-conference at AFCPE
NCTC presentation – Andrew and Suzann will do first week in October; will speak about what is Extension, benefits of working with Extension, and what support Extension provides; models of Extension working with EITC (MOtax and NH model); end with how to contact Extension; show numbers on how impacted the economy
AFCPE Pre-conference (JoAnne will do) – publicize the web site, hand outs from CBP and IRS (5-10 minutes)
Next Conference CALL:
2 p.m. Eastern, Thursday, November 1, 2007 Call-in-number: 1.866.606.4717
Access Code: 3365914
Agenda: review web site content, make recommendation for including information on eXtension, other
Minutes from the 05/17/2007 Conference Call
Participants:
North Central Region
Brenda Procter and Andrew Zumwalt, University of Missouri
Vickie Hadley, Purdue University
Southern Region and 1890s
Joanne Bankston, Kentucky State
Northeast Region
Suzann Knight, University of New Hampshire
Federal Partners
Robin Taylor, IRS
Jane Schuchardt, CSREES
Also on team:
Western Region
Dean Miner, Utah State
Tribal Colleges
Henry Thompson, Chief Dull Knife
Goals of Extension initiative:
- increase number of low-income working families who use free income tax prep services and claim the EITC
- maximum value of tax refunds to EITC eligible families with children
- involve EITC recipients in Cooperative Extension financial education and asset building programs
Action Strategies:
- Establish a baseline of Extension offices working on this effort
- Identify best practices
- Motivate more Extension Services to become involved
Steps and Assignments:
- By May 23 -- Suzanne will draft a communication for each committee member to send to their region (Missouri will handle the North Central region) and send to team; she will work with Robin to create an Excel spreadsheet to input information. The information requested will focus on efforts to publicize the availability of EITC and other tax credits, involvement with tax prep sites, and related financial education for the target audience. In addition the information requested will identify best practices currently underway with Extension leadership.
- By May 31 – Team will send comments back to Suzanne which she will incorporate into a final document
- By June 15 – Team members will send request for information to key Extension contacts in the regions they represent (see above)
- End of June – Team members will send a two-week reminder to states that have not responded.
- By July 15– All responses from states due to team member.
- By July 16 -- Team members will forward in batch to Robin. Team members are not responsible for consolidating responses.
- By September 6th conference call – Robin will provide condensed report to team.
Partnership with National Community Tax Coalition
web site has lots of information <a href="http://www.tax-coalition.org/">www.Tax-coalition.org</a>
resource library – no fee for access to documents
conference October 1-2, Denver; Jane contact David Marzahl -- Extension on program
Roll-out to Extension network nationwide
start out with outreach
long-range goal tax prep
make aware of established coalitions
report at 2007 Extension Pre-conference at AFCPE – November 14, 2007, Tampa
Next call: Thursday, Sept. 6th , 2 Eastern, same call-in number
Will discuss specifics of rollout
Minutes from the 01/27/2007 Conference Call
Tax Prep & Education National Leadership Team
Conference call “Meeting Notes”
January 17, 2007
Meeting attendants:
Jane Schuchardt, CSREES USDA
Jim Terry, CSREES USDA
Brenda Procter, University of Missouri Extension (North Central Region)
Andrew Zumwalt, University of Missouri Extension (North Central Region)
Joann Bankston, Kentucky State University Extension (1890 Institutions)
Suzann Knight, University of New Hampshire Extension (Northeast Region)
Dean Miner, Utah State University Extension (Western Region)
Robin Taylor, IRS SPEC
Purpose of National Leadership Team- Expand the Extension Tax Prep and education program nationwide.
Objectives of initiative –
- Increase the number of low-income working families in rural and urban areas who use free income tax preparation services and claim the EITC
- Maximize the value of tax refunds for EITC eligible families with children
- Line EITC recipients to Cooperative Extension financial education and asset building programs
Meeting was facilitated by Jane. Jane indicated that we want to try to accomplish the following during the call:
- Set minimal goals for the 2007 filing season
- Set goals for becoming more involved during the 2008 filing season
- Identify a team leader, if possible
Jane advised that the capacity of USDA is not such that it can direct Cooperative Extension to get involved in the project (It’s at the individual state’s discretion).
Robin provided overview of his role. He establishes national partnerships with Educational Institutions and Government Agencies to facilitate involvement of National Partner affiliates across the country in tax prep, outreach, and asset building strategies.
Each Extension team members provided a brief synopsis of what their state is currently doing:
Andrew (University of Missouri) – Extension coordinates and leads the Missouri Tax Education initiative. Provides technical support on TaxWise software, training, work with national partners such as National Community Tax Coalition (NCTC) and IRS, as well as state level partners. Extension also provides reporting and evaluates impact.
Extension has been able to obtain bridge funding from the Associate Dean.
Dean (Utah State University) – Historically, extension has provided an awareness of the VITA and EITC program. During the past filing season, he got involved in VITA tax prep. This year, extension will have “FAX File”. This will involve obtaining client info and faxing it to a Fax Center where someone will prepare the return and return it via Fax. While the tax preparation is being done, financial education (money management education) will be provided to clients to take advantage of wait times.
Suzann (University of New Hampshire) – Extension has been part of the UNH Alliance since December 2003. This alliance involves all community based coalitions in the state. Extension facilitates the formation of coalitions, developed website, provides year-round asset building help, prepare taxes with the coalitions. This filing season, extension will prepare returns at employer sites.
Joann (Kentucky State University) – Extension promotes VITA site locations and EITC. Provide (Family & Consumer Science) FCS county agents with packages containing EITC & Child Tax Credit outreach material. Writes articles on EITC and CTC and furnish to FCS county agents for outreach. Extension works through the FCS agents in Kentucky.
Ideas for team to consider:
Jane pointed out some common characteristics for each of the four extension offices participating in the initiative:
- Each can identify their WIIFM or beneficial reasons for participating
- Common goals:
- Want low to moderate families to take advantage of free tax prep and credits
- Want families to gain knowledge and skills to apply effective financial practices
- There’s enough flexibility to do your own thing driven by the needs of each state
Common goal can be for each state to break out results on what has been done locally or aggregated to show the impact of what’s been done nationally.
There are also Indicators that a National initiative can capitalize on:
- ID money saved on tax preparation fees and refund anticipation loans
- Dollars coming into states via EITC
- Financial education conducted
Develop a “Community Educators Toolkit”
- Include various models being used by states
- Provide training on toolkit
Work on toolkit during 2007 in preparation of it being used for 2008
To position National Initiative for funding opportunities:
- Develop measures to determine impact
- ID EITC success stories
- Provide consistent evaluations across the states which can be consolidated into one report
- TaxWise software has preparer fields that can be used to gather data –
- Can ID certain questions we want data on & apply at all CES cites
- TaxWise software has report features EITC & other return data
IRB (Institutional Review Board) may need to be involved or provide approval for accumulation of data across state lines
Determine appropriate methods of participation by Extension; ie. Tax prep, outreach, Financial Education, Coalition leadership, etc.
Jane asked each Extension representative whether or not they were still interested in working in a national leadership role. Responses were as follows:
- Joanne – Depending on the amount of time and effort she would have to put into it. However, she will always continue to work with EITC because of the importance of it.
- Suzann – Yes
- Andrew – Yes. Questioned whether or not Extension has been in contact with National organizations such as NCTC, Center on Budget, and AARP. They could be very beneficial to a national movement by Extension. CES focus on financial education is a strong point for us.
- Brenda – Off season would make for easier involvement for her (July or August)
- Dean – Yes
Next Steps:
- Each representative will provide a simple write-up of what extension is doing in their state and what resources they have to offer. Email to Jim Terry
- Announce the National Leadership Team (Jane to develop message)
- Jim Terry will develop a message for release in the national newsletter which will contain the following information:
- Announcement of National Leadership Team
- State models & resources for those represented on the team
- IRS resources
- Next conference call:
- May 17th @ 11am EST
- Call-in information:
- 1-866-606-4717
- Access code - 3365914
- Start serious work on initiative
