3/31/2009 (edited)

By David Morrison, Credit Union Times

A research report from the Filene Research Institute proposed that credit unions should consider offering tax preparation services for more than just low income members or lower income communities.

Instead, John Hoffmire and Thomas Harms argue in The Economics of Serving Low‑Income Employees at Tax Time: Implications for Credit Unions that credit unions should consider using the workplace to offer tax preparation services not just to their own lower income employees but low income employees of Select Employee Groups as well.

Hoffmire and Harms also stress that they are not only suggesting credit unions train their own staff to prepare taxes as is often the case in the volunteer income tax assistance program. In addition, the researchers suggested credit unions partner with existing smaller tax preparation firms to provide the tax preparation services for a reduced fee and that such an arrangement, which has been done, in a somewhat similar way, with Staples, the office products retailer, can provide benefits for the credit union, the employee, and the employer.

“It is important to note that this report examines something very different from what many credit unions may be used to in the tax preparation field. In short, we are not reporting on a modest tweak to the mainstream Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs,” the authors wrote in the study. “This study is about providing tax preparation and public private benefits enrollment to low- and modest-income employee groups for a fee.”

THE FULL REPORT CAN BE ACCESSED, FOR FREE, AT:
http://filene.org/free/taxtime