Taxes, Taxes and More Taxes

Lately I've been feeling like the days are flying by on a treadmill. Whew!

Clinics. Trainings. Appointments. Out of town several days a week. All taxes, all the time.

It was nice to teach a benefits training the other day just to get a break from all the taxes.

So far, I've co-hosted and/or worked day-long tax clinics in Toledo, Maumee, Paulding, Bryan, Van Wert and Delta.

It's good event-planning and organizational experience. And I'm becoming a tax software pro. I know expenentially more about taxes than I did a few months ago -- which is sad because I'm still no where near an expert. But I do feel a lot more confident with understanding terms, etc.

The other day, I started to do my own taxes using the Benefit Bank and was actually excited about it (dork haha). Then, just to see if it turned out the same -- I went through my Ohio state taxes on the state department of taxation web site. It really made me appreciate the simple, user-friendly format of OBB. And the answer came out the same both places. So I'll stick with the less complicated format, thanks.

Here are some pictures from the last week's clinic in Van Wert (pop: 10,690):




Wikipedia trivia about Van Wert: It is apparently the smallest city in the U.S. to have both an YMCA and a YWCA. Woot! Famous Van Wert-ians include college football coach Larry Smith and NFL players Kory Lichtensteiger and Andrew Crummey

And here are some pics from the Maumee clinic, including the pastor and his wife from Toledo's newest OBB site, Tested Faith Ministries. These guys have really jumped onboard right out of the gate, volunteering at this clinic and making all kinds of plans for community outreach in a north Toledo neighborhood that really needs their service. Thanks, guys!




The clinic started at 10 am, but we had our first walk-in at 9:15 am. We had 17 appointments (only one no-show!) and nine walk-ins. Federal tax returns totaled $17,204, with $15,619 of that coming from the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Maumee (pop: 15,237) is basically a southern suberb of Toledo, but notable natives (courtesy of Wikipedia) include: Civil War general James W. Forsyth, Heisman trophy winner Richard Kazmaier, and Heros actor Robert Knepper.