La Casa In Waukesha Offers Free Contactless Tax Preparation

WAUKESHA, WI— La Casa de Esperanza's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program has provided free federal and state income tax return preparation and filing for low to moderate income families and individuals for the last 15 years.

La Casa’s VITA program also provides bilingual culturally competent tax services for the Hispanic/Latino community.

The IRS won't start processing 2020 tax returns until Feb. 12, but La Casa is there to help people get ready.

Clients can choose from five different tax preparation methods this year. All services are free if the client qualifies. If someone needs multiple tax years done, he or she needs to schedule one or two appointments per tax year (depending on the method he or she chooses).

The five preparation methods include the following:

• In-person tax preparation.
• In-person drop-off tax preparation.
• Drive-thru tax preparation.
• Drive-thru drop-off tax preparation.
• Virtual tax preparation. (No online scheduling is available for this method.)

Virtual tax preparation clients will need to complete their entire tax appointments online, and all client interaction will take place by phone or video call. It typically takes three to five business days to complete a client's return. Here's the link to start a virtual appointment.

La Casa de Esperanza's mission is to provide opportunities to achieve full social and economic participation in society, with emphasis on the Latino population.

La Casa de Esperanza received the Wisconsin Department of Revenue's Perseverance Award for 2020 for its response during the pandemic. Last year, it implemented a drive-thru.

Gina Sanchez, who oversees the Center for Financial Stability, said the group's staff files both federal and state returns for eligible individuals in Wisconsin. All staff and volunteers are advanced IRS certified for tax preparation.

There are already 746 tax assistance appointments on the books.

Sanchez said each return is also put through a quality review, which means that an advanced IRS tax preparer who did not prepare the tax return will review all the information on the return to confirm the information, correct any errors and make sure that the client receives all the tax credits they are entitled to. Staff members are available to address client concerns.

Other VITA sites across the state are either closed this year or not doing in-person tax returns. La Casa is the only site offering taxes this way at no cost, Sanchez said.

She added that many older people are calling because AARP sites and libraries are not offering the service this year in person. "Many clients are concerned about their stimulus payment, so we have a lot of folks asking about what will happen. Through the tax preparation process this gets resolved," she told Patch.

To see if you qualify for the VITA program, call 262-832-1534. For more information visit this link.