Progress Through Business is cooperating with several Madison, Wisconsin companies to provide free tax preparation services to their low-income employees.
Metavante, a credit card maker and processor, Food Fight, which operates several restaurants, the US Veterans Administration Hospital, the University of Wisconsin Hospital and the telecom company, TDS are participating in the program, says Kris Schlenker, who is coordinating the effort for Progress Through Business.
“The dollars they get works out to a raise, so the employee feels the company is invested in them, says Schlenker.
And that, she adds, can reduce employee turnover meaning the company doesn’t have to spend money training a new employee.
The average refund on taxes per participant is $1,350. And Progress Through Business’ research shows that the average participant does about $800 better through our program than if left to do their taxes by themselves. This is over a 3% increase in annual income for someone who makes $12/hour.
The tax preparation effort, done by volunteer accounting and finance students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison aims at such things as making sure the employee applies for the Earned Income Tax Credit.