West River Eagle

Four Bands Community Fund Finishes a Strong Financial Capability Month by Helping Local Residents Receive $1.3 Million in Tax Refunds




Residents of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation kept an estimated $130,000 more cash in their pockets through a free tax service provided by Four Bands Community Fund’s Volunteer In­come Tax Assistance (VITA) site.

Four Bands has promoted fi­nancial literacy to local residents for the past fifteen years. The organization has also operated a VITA site since 2005. This site is a crucial part of the activities pro­vided during April, designated as National Financial Capability Month, to local residents. Staff helped 524 local residents com­plete their 2014 tax returns and receive $1.3 million dollars in cash refunds, all free of charge.

In addition, the VITA site helps residents claim the most under­utilized tax credit in the nation— the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This tax credit can bring up to $6,400 to each eligible fam­ily who files a tax return. Taxpay­ers who utilized the local VITA site received $684,814 dollars in EITC payments for the 2014 tax year. Overall, local residents have taken home over $2.2 million dollars in EITC tax refund cash since 2005.

Lonnie Brewer is the Business Success Coach at Four Bands. He has also been the VITA site coordinator for the past three years. Four Bands has the high­est producing Native American VITA site. That is, they do more returns for Native Americans than any site in the country.

Since opening in 2005, the VITA site provided by Four Bands has helped 2,985 local residents re­ceive $5.3 million dollars in tax refund payments. When taxpay­ers utilize VITA sites to do their annual returns, they are more likely to receive a larger refund because the service does not charge to complete or file the return. This gives the tax filer an average of $250 dollars more on their refund.

In addition, tax filers do not have to pay for instant refund loan fees or interest when they use a VITA site. Refund anticipa­tion loans (RAL) are a service often provided by paid tax pre­parers. However, when tax filers use these paid services, they lose a significant portion of their refund cash in preparation fees and interest rates on the instant loans. For example, people who file using a paid tax preparation service could lose out on more than 10% of their total refund just so they can get their money a few days sooner with a RAL.

“I am proud to be a part of this service provided by Four Bands,” stated Brewer. “I’m also glad to see that more people in the community are making wise financial choices by using the VITA site instead of utilizing tax preparation services that charge them high fees.”



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