Board of Directors | Sponsors | Press/Media | Contact Us
Tax-Aid, a 501(c)(3) public charity, was founded in 1988 by a coalition of Bay Area accountants and lawyers with the mission of assisting, without charge, low income taxpayers in connection with the preparation of their tax returns.
The catalyst for the founding of Tax-Aid was the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Tax-Aid’s founders recognized that low-income families who could suddenly benefit from filing their tax returns to receive a refund had a significant barrier. Because of the complexities of filing a tax return, they were unlikely to file unless the service of tax preparation was offered to them at no cost. To ensure that these families received the refunds they earned, the founders recruited their colleagues to volunteer their time to prepare tax returns and built an organization rooted in skills-based volunteering.
Tax-Aid’s core program information from the 2011 filing season:
- 1,200 volunteers were recruited and trained
- they prepared 4,145 returns for clients
- these clients received over $4,923,340 in refunds
- some refunds were over $4,500
- the average adjusted gross income of Tax-Aid’s clients is $18,892
- Tax-Aid served clients in San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, and Alameda County
In addition to its core program, Tax-Aid also serves as the lead agency for the United Way of the Bay Area’s “Earn It! Keep It! Save It!” campaigns in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. For more information on the campaigns, visit www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org.
