United Way's AARP and IRS collaborations: creating economic stability through partnerships.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: FINANCIAL SERVICES

Financially stable residents boost local economies, are better employees, and help communities grow and thrive. That's part of why United Way of Anchorage and its community partners team up throughout the year to offer Alaskans the chance to move toward greater financial stability and offer opportunities aimed at helping people on the path toward a more positive financial future.

"At United Way of Anchorage, we strongly believe that financially stable families are the backbone of the community. Families have a lot of moving parts; they need a lot of things to become financially stable. No one program, no one entity can do that alone," says Michele Brown, president of United Way of Anchorage. "What we have been doing over the last several years is convening a lot of partners to work together in the way that families work. It's an ongoing process to help them become financially stable." Michele Brown says United Way and its partners hope to help families move beyond times of financial crisis to a financially stable point where all bills are paid, then forward to increasing incomes and saving money for larger assets, such as a home.

Volunteers Help Bring in $8.8 Million in Tax Refunds for Anchorage Residents

One of the most important services offered by AARP TaxAide, the federal Internal Revenue Services, United Way of Anchorage, and its partners is an opportunity to have income taxes prepared at no cost. More than one hundred volunteers staff eleven sites around Anchorage and prepare taxes for free.

According to United Way, more than 5,500 people stopped at the tax preparation sites last year to have their taxes done for free, or used an online site, MyFreeTaxes.com, to do so. By United Way's estimates, attendees saved more than $797,000 in tax preparation fees (estimating the average cost to file at $150 per return) and took home an estimated total of $8.8 million in tax refunds. The average annual income of the households receiving free tax preparation was about $29,000, United Way reported.

The free online tax preparation site limits the maximum income of users to $60,000, but United Way Income Impact Director Maureen Haggblom says income is not limited at the in-person preparation sites. However, United Way does ask that people with complicated returns, such as business owners, people with multiple homes, or those who have complicated investment portfolios, use another tax preparation method. The volunteers are trying to work through as many returns as possible between February and April, Haggblom says, and complicated returns take a significant amount of time.

"We want to be able to help as many people as possible," she says.

It might seem small, but filing taxes...