2023年1月6日

芝加哥2023年1月6日/美通社/——2022年的假日季已经接近尾声，但Ladder Up的办公室才刚刚开始热闹起来。然而，这些工人不是玩具制造工人。他们是有财务头脑的工作人员和志愿者，他们的目的是以免费纳税申报单的形式，把钱放回努力工作的低收入芝加哥人的口袋里(家庭年收入不超过6万美元，个人年收入不超过3.2万美元)。成立于1994年的Ladder Up已经为75万客户提供了服务，并向他们返还了14.2亿美元。在2022年的纳税季，这家非营利组织帮助超过1.5万人获得了超过2180万美元的退款。Ladder Up服务于由于种族、性别和阶级认同而经常被当今金融体系边缘化的家庭和个人。客户不太能够理解如何准备一份准确的纳税申报单，并且最有可能犯代价高昂的错误。如果没有Ladder Up的支持，客户更有可能被掠夺性的金融提供商利用，收取不必要的费用。执行主任菲利斯·卡瓦隆-尤雷克说，该组织的影响力与志愿者的数量有关。“目前，我们知道大约每五个芝加哥人中就有一个生活在贫困线以下。 We want to be able to serve as many individuals as possible, but to do so means we need more volunteers to help us," she said. Ladder Up operates pop-up sites in hard-to-reach areas to making their programs more accessible and serve more clients. Volunteers can aid in a variety of capacities at Tax Assistance Program (TAP) sites from trained tax preparers, case and quality reviewers, site support and greeters. For more information or to register to be a Ladder Up volunteer this tax season click HERE . Volunteers make real-life impacts for Ladder Up clients. At a previous tax preparation session for a family of five, volunteer Roxanne Chow was able to file a $9,000 tax refund. "Everyone was hugging and crying happy tears," Chow said. "It really cemented that we are helping people in a very specific way." 2022 Tax Season by the Numbers: On average, a single volunteer helped generate a total of $54,270 in refunds and returns. The average volunteer session at a TAP site delivered $2,872 back to the community in tax refunds. Media Contact: Cat Donovan