This year, Tax Day is Tuesday, April 15. And if you’re running low on time before the deadline, a great option might be to seek the help of a free tax clinic to file your taxes. Skip to where to find free tax help near you.
KQED reached out to community tax sites across the Bay Area to ask what information they wish their clients knew before using their services — and what’s new about filing this year. Keep reading for their advice.
Across the Bay Area, dozens of nonprofit organizations and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites are offering you free tax filing services, both in person and virtually — often right up until April 15.
Text “taxes” to 211-211 (a text help line from United Ways of California and 211) to find a free tax filing site near you.
What to have ready before filing
The last two weeks before Tax Day tend to be the busiest period for free tax clinics, with many seeing up to hundreds of people each week.
For this reason, the tax aid groups KQED spoke to stressed just how important it is for filers to have everything ready ahead of time — to make the process as easy and fast as possible. So, a few days before your filing appointment, start getting all your documents together in a “filing kit.”
Make sure your kit includes the following:
1. Your photo ID
2. Your Social Security card, or a letter from the Social Security Administration that verifies your SSN
If you do not have a Social Security number, bring your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) provided by the IRS instead. An ITIN is a number created by the IRS for taxpayers who don’t have a Social Security number due to their immigration status.
3. The Social Security numbers and/or ITIN numbers of everyone you’ll be claiming in your taxes this year
4. Income statement forms from your employer such as a W-2, 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC or 1099-K.
Starting this year, you should receive in the mail a 1099-K form if you use online payment systems like Venmo, Cash App or PayPal, and received over $5,000 through these platforms last year. Even if this is not your main source of income, make sure to bring this 1099-K form as well. If you did not receive a 1099-K form — but made over $5,000 through these platforms — let your filer know to prevent the risk of a potential audit from the IRS.
If you claimed unemployment benefits in 2021, the EDD also should have sent you a 1099-G form.
5. Proof of health care coverage
This will be a 1095-B form, or 1095-A form if you’re insured through Covered California.
If you didn’t receive a 1095-B or 1095-A in the mail, and you were enrolled in a health care plan in 2021, contact your care provider or access your online health care account to have it ready before you visit a tax clinic.
Even if you’re worried about filing your taxes last-minute, don’t put it off. (Karolina Grabowska/Pexels)
Things to keep in mind when talking to a tax filer
Once you have your filing kit assembled, make sure you share everything with your tax filer. And even if you misplaced a form, let your filer know which benefits you received in 2024.
Something that several community tax clinics noticed this year is that several clients come in believing they qualify for certain tax credits, when that may not in fact be the case. For example, some clients think that everyone regardless of income is eligible to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit.
But in reality, this cash rebate “is a function of how much income you receive and how many dependents you claim in your tax return,” Amy Spivey, professor and director of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic at UC College of the Law in San Francisco, told KQED in 2022.
For example, if you are filing jointly with your spouse and only have one child, your income must be less than $56,004. This number changes based on the size of your family and how you choose to file your taxes.
California has its own state version of this rebate, called the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC). But there are income restrictions on who can receive that, too: Only families that made up to $31,950 a year are eligible.
If you don’t have proof of health care coverage (like a 1095-B or 1095-A form) because you don’t have health insurance, you should make that very clear to your tax preparer.
Running out of time and thinking about not filing this year?
Getting all your documents together and finding a place that can help you file your taxes can sometimes be overwhelming — especially if you already owe payments to the IRS from previous years. And Spivey understands this could dissuade people from filing when they have little time left before April 15.
“A lot of clients we see [don’t] file — they were afraid, they saw they owed money and they avoided filing,” she said. “But clients should really file on time, regardless of whether or not they can pay.”
Missing the April 15 deadline and letting another year pass without paying could have much bigger consequences later on, Spivey noted — and filing on time “is going to save you in additional penalties for maybe late filing.”
Filing by April 15 “will ensure if, for example you’re self-employed, that you’re going to get proper credit with the Social Security Administration,” she said.
What if you’re unable to pay everything you owe up front when you file? You can set up a payment plan, Spivey explained. You can do this at the time you file, or later on the IRS website.
KQED’s Mary Franklin Harvin contributed to this story. A version of this story originally published on April 1, 2022.
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