Another tax season has officially started with United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance services kicking off, providing a free services for individuals in Lehigh Acres.

VITA services are for individuals and families who make less than $66,000 per year. The tax returns are prepared by an IRS certified volunteer who has passed an annual comprehensive exam.

The community has two options to utilize in-person VITA services, Lehigh Community Services, 201 Plaza Dr. No. 3, and Goodwill, 2825 Lee Blvd.

Appointments can be made Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, and all day Saturday, as well as from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for valet drop-off service on Tuesdays at Lehigh Community Services. The Goodwill location is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays for traditional appointments.

United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades Volunteer Engagement and VITA Manager Mary Meador said Goodwill has limited space and can only accommodate two clients at a time, while Lehigh Community Services can accommodate six clients at a time.

Appointments can be made by calling 2-1-1, 239-433-3900, or online at www.unitedwaylee.org/freetaxprep/.

Those who utilize the service are encouraged to bring both their 2019 and 2020 tax returns to their appointment, as well as the total amount of any Advanced Child Tax Credits received in July through December; total paid to a day care provider and their tax ID number, name and address; amount of third stimulus payment issued in mid March 2021 and total cash donations for Charitable Contributions.

There is also a 100 percent virtual option available using GetYourRefund.org/uwlee, a simple and secure option.

Meador said clients use their smartphone, or computer to create a secure account, answer questions, and complete their intake form just like at a traditional site. Clients will have to upload pictures, or scanned documents, Social Security cards, a selfie of them holding their drivers license and all of their tax documents.

“Then a volunteer reaches out through the system, email, text, or call, and reviews the documents, asks them more questions to make sure we have all the information to do a complete and accurate return,” Meador said. “The return gets entered, then quality reviewed. The client receives, through the system, a PDF of the return to review with the volunteer, and then sign electronically if they approve.”

The process takes one to two weeks to go from the client start to finish, she said, as there is back and forth communication to get all the information needed.

Individuals can also use www.MyFreeTaxes.com, free of charge, if they choose to file their taxes themselves.

Meador said as far as getting refunds back, the IRS anticipates most taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically if they choose direct deposit and there are no issues with their tax return no matter if the client uses the traditional or virtual option.

“I will be stressing to all my clients not to spend their refunds until they get it because the IRS still has 6 million returns from last year to process as of Dec. 31 and if there is something that doesn’t match the IRS records, like amount of advanced child tax credits, or third stimulus received, the return will get moved to a department to get researched/reviewed and that will cause delays,” she said.

Meador said in addition, rules set by Congress many years ago, stated that refunds from any return with Child Tax Credit, or Earned Income Credits cannot be paid, sent out until after Feb. 15.

“This is because of the amount of fraud that takes place by people to get these credits, the IRS does some more scrutinizing of these returns,” she said.

Last year, the VITA program helped more than 1,400 individuals and families in Lehigh Acres.