Trained tax preparers offer free services through IRS VITA program at Catholic Community Services

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) -- — Tax filing season has started, but for lower income families, meeting immediate needs can make it hard to pay an expert to organize their documents.

Volunteers with Catholic Community Services said they're ready to help people make sense of the forms and documents for free.

Filers can go to the Pio Decimo Center, Monday through Wednesday afternoons and Saturday morning through April 18 to meet an IRS-certified tax preparer.

Nine on Your Side talked to CCS's VITA program coordinator, Jonetta Trued.

Because people get training through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, Trued said her team of preparers help people discover credits and returns for which they qualify.

The key for filers, she said, is coming to a center prepared with essential paper documents already in hand. "We live in a digital world, and that's frustrating, because the tax preparers really need the paper copies," Trued said.

"We have to have the W-2, we have to have the letter from DES which shows the unemployment benefits. We have to have the bank statement or some kind of a form that shows the interest."

Trued, in particular, has urged specific members of the community to come to the clinics and make sure they can, in fact, qualify for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). "We really want to reach out to those people who are single and they're not required to file," she said. "But, it would be of benefit to them if they did because then they would be able to receive that earned income tax credit."

The above image to contains times, days and a list of the documents you need to bring to the clinic. This VITA service only takes walk-ins.