Free tax preparation and Earned Income Tax Credit: Are you eligible?

You may be eligible for an Earned Income Tax Credit.

If you make less than $42,000.00 per year you are eligible for free tax preparation.

To find out where the Volunteer Tax Assistance Sites are click here.


From the New York State Office Of Temporary and Disability Assistance Web Site:

March 20, 2009 -

Each year, an estimated 300,000 eligible New York households – or 20 percent of all eligible taxpayers in the State – fail to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. With less than one month until tax day, Governor David A. Paterson today visited the Albany Community Action Partnership (ACAP) to encourage eligible low-income New Yorkers to take advantage of free tax preparation and e-filing services across the State. ACAP is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program site – one of more than 650 such sites across the State that provide free tax preparation and e-filing services to individuals and families with earned income of $42,000 or less.

Pre-Trial Release Program in Genesee County saves county taxpayers almost 4 million dollars per year.

Genesee Justice, currently under the direction of Ed Minardo, has a long history of restorative justice and pre-trial release programs. One of the most important is called the RUS program. RUS is an acromym for Released Under Supervision. People who meet certain criteria are released prior to trial to be supervised by Genesee Justice.

It costs $86.00 per day to keep a male in jail in Genesee County. Genesee County does not have jail facilities for females so they are usually incarcerated in Orleans County for per diem rate of $70.00 per day after a base annual fee of $15,000.00.

As of 02/27/08 Genesee Justice was monitoring 129 defendants (101 males and 28 females.) If these defendents would have been incarcerated it would have cost Genesee county taxpayers $8,686.00 per day for the males, and $1,960.00 per day for the females.

The RUS program saves Genesee County Taxpayers $3,885,790.00.

As of 02/27/08, this caseload of defendants was supervised by one case manager costing $32,000.00 in salary plus fringe benefits.

For more information about the Genesee Justice Pre-trial release program, you can contact Ed Minardo at 585-344-2550 x2465