FALLS CHURCH, VA – Boat People SOS (BPSOS) is recruiting volunteers to conduct community outreach on tax issues for the 2004 tax season in 15 locations across the US. Those cities include:
Adelphi, MD; Washington, DC; Northern Virginia; Hampton Roads, VA; Pennsauken, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Springfield, MA; St. Louis, MO; Louisville, KY; Raleigh, NC; Atlanta, GA; New Orleans, LA; Houston, TX; Orange County and Sacramento, CA.

To comply with the new requirements of the Internal Revenue Service's Low Income Tax Clinic (IRS/LITC) Program, BPSOS will focus on public education about tax issues in the Vietnamese and Chinese communities. The tax preparation service itself will be provided for a fee. BPSOS is seeking volunteers who are meticulous with numbers and proficient in both English and Vietnamese or Chinese. Further training will be provided by the IRS or H&R Block. New tax assistors are supervised by certified CPAs or veteran tax preparers.

In the 2003 tax season, BPSOS employed five AmeriCorps*VISTA members and 52 volunteer tax assistors to help 596 low-income taxpayers claim $739,713 in tax refunds and tax credits.

With funding from the IRS/LITC, BPSOS established the Tax Assistance for Vietnamese Immigrants with Low Income (TAVILI) program in 2000. Since then, TAVILI has established a network of 13 tax clinics. These clinics have served 3,000 taxpayers with tax preparation, which brought back to the community almost $2 million in tax refunds and tax credits.