For IRS help
IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers are a resource for personal tax help when its believed a tax issue can only be handled face-to-face. No appointment is necessary and there are two centers in Southwest Ohio:
- Cincinnati — 550 Main St., Cincinnati; its open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; for information, call 513-263-3333.
- Dayton — 200 W. Second St., Dayton; its open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (though the office is closed for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.); for information, call 937-610-2182.
For a list of services provided at the Taxpayer Assistance Centers, visit IRS.gov. Click on "Contact Your Local IRS Office" and follow the prompts.
Other tax help
The Lane and MidPointe libraries will have tax assistance from the AARP. The service is for seniors and people who are disabled or are low-income taxpayers. Here are the schedules:
- MidPointe Library Middletown, 125 S. Broad St.: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Walk-ins welcome on a first come, first served basis.
- Lane Library Fairfield, 1485 Corydale Drive: Appointments will be from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 9, 23, March 9, 23 and April 6. For an appointment, which are required, call 513-858-3238, ext. 358. Space is almost filled.
Budget cuts within the Internal Revenue Service are affecting the amount and type of tax forms available at local libraries this filing season.
MidPointe and Lane libraries in Butler County will only have copies of the 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ tax forms, and the 100-plus page income tax instruction booklet will no longer be available, officials said. To get the instruction booklet and all other tax forms, taxpayers will have to download the forms from the IRS’s website or visit one of its regional Taxpayer Assistance centers in Cincinnati or Dayton.
“With our ongoing budget issues, we continue to look for ways to provide effective service to taxpayers, while doing everything possible to reduce costs,” said Jennifer Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the IRS.
One way the IRS is cutting costs is by pushing more people online to file their taxes. More than 91 percent of taxpayers, nationwide, already use some type of computer software to prepare their federal tax returns, Jenkins said. And from May 2013 to April 2014, 89 percent of the 106 million downloads from www.IRS.gov were PDFs of current year tax products.
One out of every eight copies of the 2013 Form 1040EZ printed and shipped was filed on paper, Jenkins said, and that doesn’t include the copies libraries often print for patrons. She said there’s been a significant drop in forms and publications not picked up, and thus discarded at IRS Taxpayer Assistance centers.
"We're finding that more and more taxpayers are going to IRS.gov to get the forms and publication products they need," Jenkins said. And as a result, "we reduced our printing this year."
The move is a sign of the times in a digital era where paper products are becoming increasingly obsolete. But not everyone thinks cutting back on the availability of paper tax forms at local libraries is a good idea.
William Anderson, a 65-year-old retiree from Hamilton, has always relied on the local library for his tax forms, especially the instruction booklet on how to fill out his 1040. He said having to wait three to four weeks for the IRS to mail him a copy of the booklet is “a pain in the butt, to put it mildly.”
Anderson said he files his taxes early because he doesn’t know if he’ll get a refund or have to pay. If it’s the latter, he said he needs time to save in order to pay the IRS.
“I like to get (my taxes finished) before (baseball) spring training gets in the way,” he said.
Carol Bowling, manager of Lane Libraries main Hamilton branch, said lots of patrons are upset that the forms are in shorter supply.
“We have people who come in who are resigned to the fact that they are now being forced to to do more of it online, even if they don’t prefer to do that,” Bowling said. “But we’ve had quite a few upset patrons who just do not have the computer skills or the technology skills to do it all online now and are frustrated.”
Some MidPointe Library patrons are equally upset, said Cari Hillman, library spokeswoman.
“We know patrons have long relied on the library to stock these necessary forms and have been disappointed that changes to the IRS have made them unavailable,” she said. “MidPointe staff have gone above and beyond to assist patrons in finding alternative ways to retrieve the documents they need.”
Hillman and Bowling both said they were notified in January by the IRS that they’d only receive three types of forms, and a limited number at that.
While the libraries will print a limited number of copies for taxpayers at no charge, a hard copy of the 100-plus-page instruction booklet will need to be provided by the IRS.
To view, download or order forms, visit either IRS.gov/Forms or IRS.gov/orderforms, or call 800-829-3676.
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