Sheldon, Iowa — In past years some northwest Iowans have been able to get help with their taxes through students and staff at Northwest Iowa Community College. But COVID remains a limiting factor.
NCC business instructor Janet Boone says they started providing the tax assistance as usual last year, but had to stop.
(As said:) “The pandemic literally brought us to force a closure about midway through the tax season. It was very unfortunate. Honestly, we had to adjust all of our processes at the college.”
The bad news continues, says Boone. She says they won’t be able to offer the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) service this year either.
(As said:) “We evaluated all facets and looked at all options in the fall. We’ve had a lot of longtime clients over the years. This would have been our 18th year in operation. And the bottom line is the unforeseen obstacles and restrictions of COVID-19 is the sole reason it’s prohibited to the procedures and we came to the conclusion that we were not going to be able to open it this spring.”
Boone tells us what they’ve been doing and what you can do if you’ve come to depend on the service.
(As said:) “We have taken the initiative to notify all of our last year’s clients by the form of a letter indicating that a regrettably we will not be open on campus this year as we have been. I also disseminated on campus postings and email messaging just to notify our campus community. We have recorded a new notification on our telephone extension indicating for any of those return clients calling in of the fact that we are not going to be open, but also notifying everybody who is wondering for the fastest service, our recommendation is to visit the website irs.gov. Online tax help is available through that website.”
She reminds us that the IRS is not accepting any returns until Friday, February 12th. According to Boone, you can go to irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep, and when you enter your zip code and a range in miles, it will tell you where the closest VITA sites are that WILL be open this year. She also says they continue to update that site, so if a site opens or closes, it will reflect that. At this time, the closest sites look to be in Sioux Falls, SD; Jackson, MN; Estherville, IA; and Sioux City, IA. Or, she says you can also call 1-800-906-9887 for more information.
