REGION — Tax season is here, and Western Maine CA$H is READY. The Western Maine CA$H (Creating Assets, Savings & Hope) Coalition has been working hard in the off-season and we have an amazing group of volunteers who are IRS-certified and ready to prepare your taxes. For free.

If your household makes less than $57,000/year (so many in our community do) and you’d love to save money but get your taxes done by an IRS-certified preparer…then call us and schedule an appointment. United Way and Western Maine CA$H are committed to keeping tax filers and our volunteers safe during this pandemic. There are two ways for tax filers to get started:

1) Call 211 and schedule an appointment for our Scan & Go service. We will meet one-on-one with filers to get their tax paperwork, ID information, etc. scanned in. Masking is required and we will be limiting the number of people in the building at one time. We will schedule a follow up appointment (by phone or in person) to review the completed return. Once reviewed and approved, your return will be e-file as usual. Voila, your taxes are done without a large gathering…no muss, no fuss.

2) Go to www.getyourrefund.org/westrnme and scan your documents right to us. We have partnered with GetYourRefund which is easy and user-friendly. It is as easy as taking pictures with your phone and uploading them to our secure cloud. You will be contacted within 72 hours of the upload to confirm that all documents have been received, and your taxes will be prepared virtually by our IRS-certified volunteers within a week.

Once again there are some changes for this tax year:

•  For those who did not receive their stimulus check in 2021 (the $1,400 per person last January/February). Our IRS-certified preparers can get this stimulus for folks through the Federal return process.

•  New this tax year everyone with a child (with or without taxable income and within the income guidelines) is eligible for the child tax credit. To get the entire child tax credit, parents/guardians must file a 2021 federal tax return. If the advanced monthly payments from July to December was not received, our preparers can include the entire amount on the 2021 tax return. For families that did get the advanced child tax credit (payments from July- December 2021) your return will include the other half of the credit.

•  For those needing only a State of Maine return, no problem. This includes individuals with non-taxable income like Social Security, retirement, pensions [under a certain amount and with no withholdings], SSI, SSD, etc. and who pay property tax or rent. The State of Maine offers Property Tax Fairness Credit and Sales Use Tax Credit which can range from $125 up to $1,200.

There is a strict quality control process established to ensure that returns are successfully filed (Western Maine CA$H has the lowest reject rate in the state). Our volunteers will work hard to get you the best return possible with all eligible state and federal credits, and our Opportunity Guides will share information on valuable resources in our community.

The CA$H Coalition’s mission is directly in line with the goals of United Way by having community members volunteer their resources and time to help other members of the Franklin and Northern Androscoggin communities learn more about financial security and promoting financial education.

The Western Maine CA$H Coalition & United Way care about you and the community and are taking every precaution to offer this service safely in compliance with CDC Guidelines. United Way and Western Maine CA$H look forward to providing this free tax prep service again this year.