WCC's volunteer income tax program wraps up 12th year

SUGAR GROVE - Waubonsee Community College's Volunteer Income Tax Assessment Program recently completed its 12th year, serving 931 clients and resulting in $1.8 million dollars refunded for 2016.

During the 2016 tax season, Waubonsee students and community volunteers prepared tax returns for low to moderate income families and individuals as part of the Internal Revenue Service's VITA Program. The sessions were offered from January 27 to April 16 at Waubonsee's Aurora Downtown Campus.

The college has partnered with the Center for Economic Progress (CEP) for 11 of those years to provide income tax assistance in the community. Since 1990, CEP has helped more than 370,000 families through the service and returned more than half a billion dollars in refunds and saved fees. This year, Waubonsee volunteers gave 1,982 hours of their time to prepare a total of 1,750 federal and state income tax returns. More than 40 Waubonsee students were also clients of the program. The program has been lead by George and Therese Sterling since 2012, and who are stepping down from that role.

"We are so grateful to George and Therese Sterling for leading this program through a time of growth and for maintaining a high level of service to the community," said Ne'Keisha Stepney, Waubonsee Assistant Dean for Business and Career Technologies.

Since the inception of the VITA program at Waubonsee, 548 volunteers have served 7,168 clients, prepared 14,276 federal and state income tax returns and returned more than $14.8 million to the community.