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IRS offers free tax prep at 10 Iowa sites today

March 21, 2009 By

The Internal Revenue Service is offering free tax preparation services and free tax advice at ten locations across Iowa today. I.R.S. spokesman Christopher Miller says federal tax deadline day is just under a month away.

"The I.R.S. is reaching out to taxpayers in a special way this weekend with an event we call Super Saturday," Miller says. "It’s a chance for people to get help with their tax questions, help preparing their returns — if you make 42-thousand dollars or less — and help if you think you may have problems paying your taxes this year."

In addition to the services being offered at the main I.R.S. office in Des Moines, Miller says there will be tax preparation professionals set up in nine other locations across the state, in places like community centers and churches.

He says to bring along all of your paperwork that’ll allow you to do a tax return, including last year’s return, Social Security numbers for yourself, your spouse and dependants, and all financial records, like mortgage statements and property tax bills. Miller says there is no income limitation for people needing services during the Super Saturday event. He says the service will help people get their refunds quickly.

He says locations and hours of operation for the Super Saturday events are available online at the I.R.S. website, www.irs.gov, or by calling 800-906-9887. Some locations include: Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City and Omaha/Council Bluffs.

Miller says, "These are tough times for a lot of families, and we want to provide services at a time when it may be more convenient for people who are busy during the week."

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DNR’s annual river cleanup set for June 20-27

March 21, 2009 By

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has selected the site of this year’s annual week-long river cleanup event. Project AWARE (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition) will take place on the Cedar River in eastern Iowa June 20-27. The DNR’s Brian Soenen helps organize the volunteer effort and says this summer’s cleanup will cover an 86-mile route between Center Point and Muscatine.

The participants will float down the river in canoes and kayaks, plucking garbage and debris along the way. Soenen expects a lot of time will be spent in Cedar Rapids, where the river flooded out of its banks last summer damaging thousands of homes and businesses. He says the river cleanup in August of last year also passed through Cedar Rapids and volunteers pulled out record amounts of garbage.

This the 7th year for a Project AWARE event. More information about the effort can be found here .

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

Audible gasps as dire tax report issued

March 21, 2009 By

There were audible gasps from the crowd as a panel of experts dramatically lowered their prediction of state tax revenue yesterday. Their decision now forces the governor and legislators to cut about $130 million from the current year’s state budget and another $270 million from the preliminary plans for next year’s state budget.

Holly Lyons, a top administrator in the Legislative Services Agency, is one of the three members of the Revenue Estimating Conference — the panel of financial experts who make an official guess at state tax revenues. "Estimating general fund revenues in good times is difficult enough," she told the crowd, "but in these turbulent times that we have now, it’s really difficult."

Lyons offered a sobering assessment of the economy, concluding the recession may last ’til the summer of next year. "Unemployment claims continue to increase and they’re at an all-time high. We’re witnessing more layoffs. We’re witnessing reduced work hours and furloughs," Lyons said. "…I saw something (at www.economy.com) that said nationally, the jobless rate is not expected to peak until early or mid 2010, so we may not even be halfway through this recession."

The national recession is into its 15th month. The recession didn’t hit Iowa for a few months, but according to Lyons the state’s economy has been in recession for about 11 months because state tax revenue started to decline in April of 2008. "We started experiencing significant job losses last fall and so the question is: has the economy bottomed out?" Lyons said. "And in my opinion, no, I don’t think we’ve reached the bottom."

Read and listen to more about this story on The Blog.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,