The Greene County Library recently opened its site to offer free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) to residents of Greene and neighboring counties.
The recent program was launched through collaborative efforts by local sponsors Greene County Family Connection, Saint Vincent De Paul, and the Knights of Columbus from Christ Our King and Savior Catholic Church.
The program is available to individuals, including most households with annual incomes under $67,000, as well as taxpayers claiming the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Credit, and Education Credits.
As vice president of the church’s Saint Vincent De Paul organization, Mike Sleeth says he got the idea to bring the free service to the library through his work with the nonprofit. He says the service can help taxpayers qualify for “significant refund opportunities” through the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
“Most of the people we work with are single, and they are the head of households. Which is a little bit better than filing just single,” Sleeth said. “Because of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the head of household can receive $3,900 for one child, $6,600 for two children, and $7,400 for three or more children.”
According to Sleeth, the volunteer service was previously offered in Greene County eight years ago, through Greene County Family Connection (GCFC). He says the program consists of 16 volunteers from the church, nonprofits, and GCFC.
Sleeth mentioned that in November, the programs began work to restart the service. He says that, since starting the service a few weeks ago, volunteers haven’t assisted as many individuals as initially expected.
“We’ve been trying to reach out in several different ways, such as a press release, putting flyers around town, and I called the Green County School System and spoke with people there,” Sleeth said. “We’re trying to notify as many people as we can and reach the people that may not be aware of this. There are still a lot of working families that meet these qualifications and could get a lot of money back.”
Overall, Sleeth says that he plans to have the program return next year and expects a larger turnout of residents to assist. He says they have “passed the hurdle” of starting the program and expects to bring it back next year on Feb. 1.
“We had to conduct training classes for all of our volunteers, get logged on with tax return preparation software, and train everybody how to use it,” Sleeth said. “It took a while to get all the pieces in place, but now it should be a relatively simple matter, because the volunteers are familiar with it; All of the systems are set up, so we should be able to plug and play next year.”
The Greene County Library’s Free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance for 2025 will remain available for qualifying residents until April 14.