What if you could look forward to tax season instead of dread it? What if the person doing your taxes was kind, patient and knowledgeable? What if a friend helped you file instead of a stranger? What if you didn’t have to pay a tax preparer hundreds of dollars each year?
Many people turn the calendar to January and dread the looming tax season. A small but mighty group of twelve volunteers at Garden Spot Village, however, has transformed the tax experience. They look forward to tax season and the impact they have on the lives of their neighbors and friends.
Garden Spot Village hosts a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program through United Way of Lancaster County.
Duane Tice, a Garden Spot Village resident since April 2008 and the VITA coordinator for the Garden Spot Village location, says that many people are anxious and nervous when they arrive for their appointments. “But,” he says, “we help them get their taxes done and they walk out with a smile.”
“I love the fact that I can do my taxes at work” says Sharon Sparkes, digital storyteller at Garden Spot Communities. “The VITA volunteers are much more thorough than the public accountant I paid to do my taxes before I started working at Garden Spot. The volunteers carefully review everything and I feel confident that everything is correct when I’m filing my taxes.”
Duane says the IRS started VITA more than 50 years ago to help people comply with the federal law that compels every person who is eligible to file a tax return. United Way of Lancaster County supports 15 VITA locations around the county. Garden Spot Village began offering tax assistance through VITA more than 20 years ago.
United Way of Lancaster County supports the volunteers with training each fall. Garden Spot Village supports the program by providing computers, equipped with TaxSlayer, a web-based software which does not save personal information. Taxes are prepared in the Gardens West Conference Room, which allows space and privacy for multiple appointments at the same time. Volunteers work one four-hour shift each week.
By the time April 15, 2025 rolled around, volunteers at Garden Spot Village prepared upwards of 400 tax returns each year, saving 211 residents, 17 team members and 174 community members an estimated $120,000 in tax preparation fees.