Rejections, PINs, and Promotions

Here is important information from our weekly Tax Season Updates email:

• Are you getting a lot of calls from clients with rejected e-files? Give this document to your clients at the end of your session to help them log on to their account, check their e-file status, and fix their own e-file errors! This document can also be found in our tax clinic kit.
• Important! There is a new way to sign an e-file. When a 2009 AGI or 2009 Pin cannot be located, clients may now use a NEW Electronic Filing Pin given to them by the IRS by going to this IRS website.
• Want to promote OBB services in your area? Order OBB door hangers to let your neighborhood know about OBB tax services!

Tax Season by the numbers

Yesterday was our biggest day yet here at the Ohio Benefit Bank Direct Service Office and across the entire state! In one day, OBB sites and ohiobenefits.org served 1,477 people.

From January 1st through 11:30 am today (February 11th), we have served over 12,644 clients in completing 19,318 different applications!

The hotline has also answered 4,351 phone calls!

A huge kudos to our hotline workers who field calls from all over Ohio and then tell clients which of your sites they can visit to get help, and of course a huge kudos to all of you for all the work you do with The Benefit Bank!  Remember, if you ever get overwhelmed by clients, let a Central Ohio team member (Zach, Sarah or Heather) know so we can either take you off our referral list, or permanently remove you from being a public site.

School District Taxes

From Sarah, a Community Trainer:  I will be the first to admit taxes are intimidating.  Many of you who attended my trainings have heard me say that I just graduated with a Communications and Media degree, nothing to do with taxes, math, government, policy, etc.  Using The Benefit Bank tool empowered me to be successful at something I wouldn't have touched with a 39 and a half foot pole a couple months ago, but there are still a couple of confusing parts.  I have noticed that many fellow counselors start sweating when you get to school district taxes.  Can I show you a summary of a school district situation I encountered yesterday?  This client moved within the year, didn't work in the same town she lived in, and had a mailing address in an altogether different district:

(Click on the image to view a larger version in your browser)

It took a while to confirm the information, but The Benefit Bank did an awesome job giving follow-up instructions, breaking down where she paid, where she overpaid, where she didn't have to pay, and how to file the additional SD taxes (as we could only submit one of the districts with our e-file).

To help ease nerves and continue to make you more expert counselors, I want to make sure everyone saw this important section on SD taxes in our last OBB blast email:

• Finally, some clarifying information about school district tax:

1.     Not all W-2s identify school district tax the same way. In most cases you will look for "SD" or "School District" in the locality field of the W-2 (under the Ohio tax section).

2.     Be aware that some school disticts may have the same name as a city. In this case, make sure that the item you are looking at is not a city tax.

3.     Click here for a list of school districts, highlighted in red are districts which require residents to file school district taxes. To find out which school district you live in click here and enter your address.