These volunteer tax preparers are helping low-income families get their stimulus payments

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/11/politics/code-for-america-tax-filing-stimulus-payments/index.html

By Katie Lobosco, CNN
Updated 8:59 AM ET, Sat April 11, 2020

Over the past two weeks, the nonprofit group Tax Help Colorado has been on the receiving end of panicked emails and calls from low-income people worried about how to file a tax return so they can get their federal stimulus payments, which can amount to as much as $1,200 per person.

Normally, Tax Help Colorado would direct callers to one of 40 free tax-preparing sites across the state, part of a national IRS volunteer program -- but those shut down in mid-March amid the rising coronavirus crisis.

That's where Code for America comes in.

Long before the outbreak, the group -- also a nonprofit -- started building a secure way for people to upload their tax documents with an online service called Get Your Refund, and still get help from a volunteer tax preparer. It's aimed at helping low-income people, millions of whom don't file each year, claim tax credits they're due.

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