CCACC Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Service wrapped up

The Chinese Culture and Community Service Center sponsored the 2023 filing tax season VITA service, which wrapped up on 4/8 at noon. This program was founded in 2013 and has been carried out solely by CCACC for the past 10 years without stopping, even during the pandemic. This is the 11th year the CCACC VITA team serves the Asian American community and has expanded its service to various races starting in 2020, such as friends from India, Korean, Japanese, Southern Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Russian, South American and South African. We are glad we united all the people from different countries to get engaged with Chinese culture and community through the VITA program.

In 2023, the CCACC VITA site will serve from February 4th to April 8th on Saturdays in-person and weekdays in-virtual. There are about 17 volunteers, from college students to senior adults, government employees, and retired engineers and CPAs. One of the UMD Accounting students, Zanna, said that she is so glad to have this opportunity to utilize her knowledge learned in the classroom in the real world and help people file tax returns successfully. She will never know what the earned income credit is or how it came out to taxpayers without seeing the real practice at the CCACC VITA site. Three of the volunteers are MCPS youth, 9 to 11, supporting the set-up and clean-up, paperwork, and greeting the clients. They could learn in detail how a program is organized and runs successfully.

85% of the taxpayers served at the CCACC VITA site are Chinese-speaking. 90% have very little knowledge about tax law and financial or retirement management. The IRS provides training to certified tax preparers to share with taxpayers year round. So, both taxpayers and certified tax preparers can learn from this program. The CCACC VITA site recommends that all taxpayers always consult a tax professional to decide their financial plan and prepare their tax returns. You may be qualified to get a tax credit based on your income level. Taxpayers have the right to save their taxes or get a tax credit based on the tax law. Carefully judge what the correct or incorrect method is to file your tax returns accurately. Filing your tax return wrongly may cause you to spend more time amending tax returns, communicating with the IRS, or affecting your good record.

Taxpayers Mr. Cheng and Mr. Wang expressed their appreciation that they had to spend money to get professional tax returns in the past 5 years. They felt very pleased and safe with the CCACC VITA team’s service when filing their tax returns, with detailed explanations, patience, and efficiency. When they forget to bring any tax documents or need to make up income or expense information, they will provide flexible solutions.

CCACC Executive Director, Rita Lewi, and Director of Community Services of CCACC, ChiaoChiao Liu held the ending celebration feast to appreciate the VITA team. Ms. Lewi expressed CCACC’s appreciation and mentioned that CCACC was originally founded by a group of volunteers. The spirit of volunteerism has been one of the main reasons for CCACC to keep serving the community for the past 40 years. CCACC values it very much.

CCACC is honored to provide this special program to our community. In addition to the VITA program, CCACC provides a health clinic, in-home care, senior day care, Evergreen Club with the nutrition program, senior lifetime learning (English and technology), an early child or after school education program, and a swimming and tennis sport program to fulfill the community's needs. CCACC can always connect you to the other programs you need one day. CCACC is glad to see our team provide various programs to make our community a better neighborhood. You may find more information about CCACC's services at ccacc-dc.org and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ccaccdc/.