Free and Easy Income Tax Preparation in Bed-Stuy

Tax season is now in full swing, and residents of Bed-Stuy have been taking advantage of the free financial services offered by the city to file their returns.

Three locations right on Fulton Street are offering free tax preparation services for low-income residents, thanks to the partnership of , the and the .

The Food Bank location at Restoration Plaza and the Credit Union at Fulton Street both offer tax filing with the help of volunteers. This service is available for individuals who earned less than $18,000, or less than $50,000 with dependents during 2010.

"This place was full of people when I came in this morning, but it slows down in March," said the site manager for the Food Bank Restoration Plaza location, who preferred not to be named in this article. "It's always busier earlier in the season."

But she noted that the program has always been successful and that there is already a substantial pile of returns to be filed with still about a month left in the tax season.

According to Tracey Capers, senior vice president for Programs and Organizational Development at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, the RITE Center location will now be open six days a week, offering guided help for filing online through Turbo Tax for those earning less than $48,000 per tax return.

The location is less popular than the Credit Union and Food Bank because Capers noted that people are often intimidated by the idea of self-preparation. But, she said, this is nothing to be afraid of.

"It's pretty self-explanatory," she said. "Most of the questions that people have are generally about using the computer, but if you know how to use Facebook then you can definitely do this."

Aleah "Sunshine" Roberts stumbled upon the free tax services at the RITE Center while looking for a more economical way to file, rather than pay a fee at a local tax service office. She didn't realize at first that she would be doing it completely on her own, but she was pleasantly surprised by the results.

"It was scary going in," Roberts said, laughing. "I was really nervous because I had other people do it for so long but I came out great. I can't believe how easy it was."

Christopher Brown, who is the manager of the Brooklyn Coop Federal Credit Union location at Fulton Street, feels that this free service is not only beneficial during tax season but that it provides long-term opportunities for people in the community to get their finances in order without worrying about having to pay for it.

"It's an all-encompassing service in some ways," he said. "More people are getting in touch with their finances and improving their financial awareness. A hundred people have opened accounts [since the start of tax season] already."

Roberts echoed this sentiment, saying that she's grateful she walked into the opportunity and has been telling everyone she knows to take advantage of it because the process can end up being costly at local offices.

"It's sad because I didn't really know about it before and I live just down the street. There's a lot of unemployment, so we need more services like this," she said. "We need this like we need the grocery store down the street."