Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 21 Mar 2016

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From YouTube: CASH

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Learn about the CASH program and the benefits to you.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler.. I'm pleased to welcome to the hello baltimore county studios, sara johnson,, director of the baltimore cash campaign.

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To tell us about their free income, tax, preparation and financial services.

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For people with limited incomes., thank you so much for joining us. thanks so much for having me. so,. I love the acronym "cash,", creating assets,, savings, and hope.

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Tell us a little bit about what you do in general., well, baltimore cash is a non-profit organization and we've been doing this work in baltimore city and serving people in baltimore county and surrounding counties as well.

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For 15 years., we provide free tax preparation to anyone who made ¤54,000 or less.

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So that's an individual or a household can come to any of our free tax preparation sites and they can make an appointment by going to bmorefreetaxes.org.

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Okay,, so it's ¤54,000 or less,, whether that's an individual amount or a household amount?,.

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That's right: --, an individual or a family can take advantage.

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Of our free tax preparation, services.

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okay,, and where do they go for that.

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And how do they find out about what to do??

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We only take appointments,, so someone needs to go online.

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And when you click on "bmorefreetaxes.org,".

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A map will pop up and will show you all of our 15 sites and two in baltimore county,.

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And they can make an appointment online or they can call 410-234-8008.

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Okay, and one of the things that I understand a lot of people sometimes miss is the earned income tax, credit.

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Tell us what that is and who it affects and why people miss it.

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The earned income tax credit is one of the most powerful tax credits that we have.

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It has a lot of great bipartisan support in washington, d.c.,.

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Which is a rarity, as we know, these days.

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And there's also a state earned income tax, credit.

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So,, it really, as the name says,. If you earned money.

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And you're a lower income worker,. This is a tax credit that puts money right in your pocket..

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Some families get a tax credit of up to ¤5,000 or ¤6,000.

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Average tax clients in baltimore, city and county is about ¤2,000 from people that we serve..

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That's in addition to your tax, refund. so,. This is a lot of money coming back into people's pockets,.

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In one big lump sum, and we want to make sure people get back all of their money., don't get ripped off by these commercial tax preparers that are promising and there's a lot of gimmicks involved in what they're doing,.

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So make sure you come to our program.

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It's an irs-certified program..

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We do a lot of really good quality work,, so we want to make sure that people take advantage of it. and the word "free" in other contexts can be kind of a trick, right?.

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Yeah, we talk about--, so there's the real "free".

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And then the shady "for free, " right?, you know, people are,, like I said,, these are promotions,.

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These are gimmicks that are trying to get people in the door, and then it's sort of this "gotcha" moment. -- they have your tax documents,. They have your id, and oftentimes they're overcharging you;, it's not a very transparent process.

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If you come to baltimore cash campaign,, you should be rest assured. Everything is above board,, irs-certified,, really free.

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We serve over 10,000 households every year at our tax sites.

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And, like I said, we've been at this for 15 years.

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And beyond tax preparation,, you do a lot of financial education.

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Tell us about money, power, day.! Those are two nice words to put together.

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Oh, yeah., it's fun, stuff,, right?, yeah,, so money power day is our annual event, and this year it's happening on april, 2nd at poly-western, high school.

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Again, you can find that information on our website., it's free to everyone.. We have 50 different vendors. That will be there, that you can talk to.

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We have a credit cafe,. We have a youth zone,, you can talk to a financial planner., it's really everything for your finances in one place on one day.

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It starts at 9 am and goes until 3 pm on april 2nd.

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All right, tell us about some of your year-round financial education, services.

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We provide financial education and financial coaching.

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As I mentioned, tax time, people are getting big windfalls of money.

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And oftentimes they're not sure what to do with it., so at tax time, we can help people open bank accounts,.

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We can help people purchase a u.s. savings, bond.

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We can also then connect them to other resources., so we have financial education specialists that can work with people, one on one.

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These are called financial coaches., so, if you're interested in reaching a financial goal,, we really suggest that you work with someone to think about what your steps are to reaching a financial goal.

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so,. Those are just some of the things that we offer --, both during tax time and then beyond. okay,, and let's just recap about the free --.

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Legitimate free tax preparation services for somebody that may have just tuned in. yeah,, so it is income-eligible.

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If you made ¤54,000 as an individual or a household,,.

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You qualify for free tax, preparation, services., you need to make sure you get together your social security card,, your w-2s, 1099s,, all that good stuff, and make an appointment at bmorefreetaxes.org.

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Or call 410-234-8008.

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Okay,- and this is the baltimore cash campaign,, which stands for creating assets,, savings, and hope.

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All right,, so we encourage people to go to your website to learn about all of your services year. Round.

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Yes, we do., we look forward to serving people.

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All right, well, thank you so much for joining us., thanks for having me. sure, and thank you for watching hello, baltimore county., don't forget,! You can find out about! What's going on right on the county's website and by connecting with baltimore county government on facebook and twitter., we will see you next time.

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