Tax help offered to SLO County residents through California Central Coast Tax Coalition

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• Nonprofit Strategies: Tax clinic helps low-income families obtain valuable credits

  Nonprofit Strategies: Tax clinic helps low-income families obtain valuable credits

  One of the most powerful tools the federal government has to help lowincome families move toward financial stability, the low-income tax credit, is underutilized on the Central Coast. A family of five earning less than $24,000 per year may be eligible for a credit of approximately $5,000. This infusion of money helps millions of working families nationwide stay out of poverty.

  To guard against abuse, the IRS audits families receiving the low-income tax credit at twice the rate of other tax filers.

  Until now, these families on the Central Coast had to hire a CPA or enrolled agent or represent themselves during the audit process. Fear of being audited and a lack of understanding of the tax code have deterred lowincome families from claiming the credit.

• South County Beat: AARP is there to help at tax time

  South County Beat: AARP is there to help at tax time

  Last March I was trying to do my income taxes. Some new laws were hard to grasp. As I grappled with trying to understand them, it came to me that the American Association for Retired Persons has a free tax-aid program.

  They must be a bunch of elderly guys who have little training and only do the simplest tax returns, I surmised. Enter a student in my exercise class, Dee Gore. She said her husband, Don Gore, of Shell Beach, has been volunteering as a tax aid for many years, and he is a retired corporate attorney and engineer.

  I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, Don was able to solve my tax issues and complete my taxes electronically in record time, saving me hours of filling out forms and anguish.

• Program has prepared more than 900 tax returns for low-income local residents so far this year

  Program has prepared more than 900 tax returns for low-income local residents so far this year

  So far this tax season, a program providing free income tax preparation services to residents in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties has prepared more than 900 returns for low-income individuals and families.

  A partnership that includes Cal Poly, Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County and United Way of Santa Barbara County offers the program that focuses on individuals and families earning less than $50,000 in 2011.

  To date, local residents have received a total of about $900,000 in federal income tax refunds, with qualifying families getting an average of $2,456, plus an average of $794 in a child tax credit, according to a news release.

• SLO Food Bank survey reveals faces of hunger

  SLO Food Bank survey reveals faces of hunger

  If there is one epitomizing image of hunger in San Luis Obispo County that tells the story of the average resident in need of food, it might be a 48-year-old Hispanic woman, with a full-time job but no medical or other benefits, and no children, earning $1,200 a month.

  That is the profile of an average participant in a survey that aimed to find out who in the county is hungry and why. The work was conducted through a partnership between Cal Poly students and faculty and the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County.

  By interviewing more than 800 residents from Shandon to Nipomo, they were able to compile a more comprehensive picture of residents in need and their access to food. The results, released Friday, will be used to determine how to meet those needs, said Carl Hansen, executive director of the Food Bank Coalition.

• Viewpoint: Healthy families advance the health of a community

  Viewpoint: Healthy families advance the health of a community

  Back in 1776, we found common ground around “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Today, while we respect and honor our Americanism, we tend to find ourselves belonging to an ever-evolving variety of diverse groups. How we increase our capacity to recognize common ground when our groups honor a cornucopia of different values and missions can seem daunting at times.

  At United Way of San Luis Obispo, we believe we can find common ground around “Life, liberty and the pursuit of education, income and health.”

  We’re advancing the common good through our focus on education, income and health — the building blocks to a good quality of life.