TAS partnered with external stakeholders, including Local Income Taxpayer Clinics, software developers, Consulates, Congress members, and community organizations that support senior citizens, Limited English Proficient (LEP) taxpayers, and Veterans to raise awareness about TAS. We met with taxpayers directly to discuss tax issues during eight Problem Solving Day events held across the country. Additionally, we partnered with TEGE to serve on the IRS’ Indian Tribal Government Working Group, establishing opportunities for outreach to Native American Indian communities. We are now able to reach this population by attending Pow Wow events to share critical information about our services, eligibility valuable tax benefits, like EITC, and the locations of free VITA sites for free tax assistance and preparation. Our CSO promotes Problem Solving Day events through TAS social media channels and external-facing websites to increase awareness of local events while highlighting online resources.
TAS launched a pre-filling season preventative strategy, which involved creating PowerPoint presentations and flyers to distribute at outreach events. The topics covered included avoiding tax return processing delays to obtain important refunds like EITC, as well as ways to prevent falling victim to tax scams. Local taxpayer Advocates began preparations for either in in-person or virtual pre-filling season outreach, set to be completed in the second quarter.