Camden Residents Receive Free Income Tax Assistance from Rutgers Law Students

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN – This tax season, hundreds of low-income New Jersey citizens will receive a real break from approximately 75 Rutgers–Camden students who are providing free assistance in preparing income tax returns.

Thanks to the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at the Rutgers School of Law–Camden, students have been trained to help in the preparation of federal and New Jersey state tax returns.  The program offers access to these free services on the Rutgers—Camden campus.

By taking advantage of the Earned Income Credit Tax (EITC) and Child Care Credit, Rutgers law school students help their clients to get the refunds they are entitled to receive.

At the Rutgers–Camden law school, the VITA program has an established tradition of delivering this valuable service.  In 2008, Rutgers–Camden law students assisted nearly 400 clients and helped to secure more than $400,000 in refunds above the amounts owed. 

Jonathan Klein, a second-year law student at Rutgers–Camden, became involved with VITA in 2008.  “I quickly saw how much this program helped the people of Camden, and ended up volunteering nearly every week,” he recalls.

This year, the Medford resident is one of the student coordinators for the Rutgers–Camden program.

“We are not preparing complicated returns,” says Klein. “Our clients have very low incomes, so any refund we can get them helps.” 

Dedication to the Rutgers–Camden law school’s VITA program fuels the enthusiasm among the student service providers. “At one session, I worked with a woman whose husband had been tragically killed in an accident while on vacation.  She worked hard to provide for her family, but expressed concern for her ability to keep food on the table.  I helped her obtain a nearly $2,000 tax refund.  In the end she was so grateful to have someone listen to her and to get a refund, she gave me a big hug and left,” says Klein.

“I could tell a similar story from every single time I have volunteered with VITA,” continues the Rutgers–Camden law student.  “I served as a VITA volunteer almost every week last tax season, and every time I helped individuals in the Camden community get thousands of dollars in tax refunds that they probably would not have gotten otherwise. My clients made a difference in my life, and I love that I have been able to make a difference in their lives as well.”

The Rutgers–Camden law school VITA program is offered on the Rutgers–Camden Campus on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 7 p.m. through April 8, and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon on Feb. 21, Feb. 28, March 7, March 21, and March 28.  Each session will be held in West Conference Room A on the lower level of the Campus Center, located on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus.

For more information about the VITA program at the Rutgers School of Law–Camden, contact Pam Mertsock-Wolfe at (856) 225-6406.

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