Volunteer, Help DC EITC

The DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign is looking for volunteers. DC EITC Campaign provides free tax preparation in DC to help low-income residents and families.

Tax professionals and non tax professionals welcome. They will train you in January and the volunteer work will continue until mid April. 

Earned income tax credit was added to the tax code in 1975. When applied to taxes of low income workers and families, EITC helps offset the required social security tax deduction. Basically, if the credit is higher than the amount taxed int the name of social security a refund is given to the tax payer.

In addition to helping workers file for the EITC, the Campaign attempts to make clients awarer of other free financial services such as savings programs and credit counseling.

Here's the listing from DC EITC:

       You Can Change Lives, One Return at a Time

This tax season you can be a part of a tremendous effort that brings over $9 million into the homes of DC’s low-income working families each year!  How?  By volunteering as a Tax Preparer or Savings Promoter with the DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign (www.dceitc.org).

The Campaign is recruiting volunteer Tax Preparers to help low-income clients file their taxes and claim the credits that they deserve.  Each tax return completed by a volunteer preparer can raise a low-income working family’s income by more than $6,000.  

Other volunteers, known as Savings Promoters, will help clients use their returns to move up the economic ladder by saving a portion of their refunds, and enrolling in money management classes and credit counseling!

Volunteers will receive free training and certification on Saturdays and/or weekday evenings in January: 12 total hours for Tax Preparers, and 4 hours for Savings Promoters.

Volunteers then commit to one 3-4 hour session per week (primarily evenings and/or weekends) from late January through mid-April (10 weeks) at one of 11 tax sites throughout the Greater Washington, DC area.  Two of the sites are in the Columbia Heights/Adams Morgan area.  We especially need Spanish speakers at the site on California street (Language ETC).

For more information, visit the Campaign’s website at www.dceitc.org/volunteer.html

Or contact the DC EITC Campaign’s Volunteer Coordinator, Page Schindler Buchanan, at  volunteer@dceitc.org or 202-419-1442 x106

Scaffolding, Fencing Removed From 3145

Most scaffolding all of the fencing was removed from the face of 3145 Mount Pleasant Street NW. The shell of the former apartment building has stood for over 22 months pretty much as is. A devastating fire destroyed it in the early morning hours of March 13, 2008 displacing all the residents and leading to a mostly hidden, seemingly non existent attempt to rebuild or redevelop.

The 93 unit building was home to about 200 residents. The overnight fire caused $20 million in damages, after destroying 3145 and gutting most of the adjacent Meridian Hill Baptist Church (fronts 16th Street).

If you have any news or lived in 3145, do tell. I would love to hear that the owners of this building have decided to move on this and started work in any area; whether that is site clean up, complete demolition or rebuilding. As of late last year (November) the property was still on Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs' Vacant Property List without exemption. That means they were not exempt form DC's special vacant property tax, which is now at a steep $10 per $100 assessed value for "blighted" properties. In comparison, the tax rate for a vacant "non-blight" residential property is $0.85 per $100. The exemption would have meant the owners were actively attempting to sell the property or improve its condition. So, according to DCRA they were doing neither of those things late into 2009.

Perhaps that has changed with the new year. If you see something, say something. Well, tell me first, then say something. Good luck to all the former residents who are still around and want to return to their original homes.

Qdoba Should Come to Mt P Street; More Taxis, Taxes: Keeping Tabs

**Qdoba, the Mexican fast-food/casual restaurant is opening a new location in Falls Church. That's not nearly as important as the fact that that franchisee is looking for new locations across Washington. Mount Pleasant Street, NW, perhaps? I wish! Take one of our open storefronts, please!

**The Ward One taxi scandal is turning into a DC-wide taxi scandal with the arrest of nearly 40 people in connection with an elaborate bribery scheme. Well, actually not that elaborate. The accused allegedly attempted to bribe DC Taxicab Commissioner Leon J. Swain Jr. for access to taxi operators licenses. Mr. Swain apparently alerted the proper authorities and worked to ensnare the accused. Initially the news reports centered on the arrest of one man, Ted Loza. Mr. Loza is the chief of staff for Ward One council member Jim Graham. He was arrested on related bribery charges. Mount Pleasant is in Ward One.

**If you hadn't noticed, the DC sales and use tax (i.e. sales tax) just went up to 6%, from 5.75%. Council made the change last summer and it officially changed on October 1. Does not affect restaurant or gas taxes.

**The Wall Street Journal labeled DC the hottest "Youth-Magnet City." We're tied with Seattle as the top destination spot for college grads, interns an the like. That's good I guess. I'm not in my 20s anymore, but I was when I moved here. Loved it then and love it now! Go DC!