NICEVILLE — Katie Meany sat at a table in the City Council chambers on Tuesday and watched as book after book on income taxes were handed to her.
“As the books keep stacking I started thinking, ‘Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into,’ ” Meany said before the small group of residents gathered for an orientation session of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. “I don’t do a whole lot of volunteer stuff, and I thought this would be good for my school and I’m helping other people.”
This year is the first time Okaloosa County will have VITA volunteers at two locations to give free tax help to low- and moderate-income taxpayers. Tuesday’s orientation helped shed light on the preparation needed for volunteers to be certified to offer assistance.
Holly McCarroll, a stakeholder relationship tax consultant with the Internal Revenue Service — the friendly face of the IRS, she told the group — said the volunteers’ support and participation could help the nearly 57,000 people in the county who make $51,000 or less.
“Our vision is to bring individuals and families, preparers, counselors just a whole array of financial education,” McCarroll said. “We hope that this will create a major beast.
“VITA’s goal is to break the cycle of poverty.”
McCarroll said the IRS hopes to integrate financial education and training seminars to help free people from debt and teach them to spend wisely.
People at the orientation watched as McCarroll went step by step through the process they would go through at home to become certified, including the volunteer agreement, standards of conduct and the education needed to be in the intermediate level of training to help.
Coordinators with VITA hope to have volunteers certified by the time the tax assistance sessions begin Feb. 2 and continue to April 15.
Okaloosa County will have VITA sites at the JobsPlus One-Stop Career Center in Crestview and at Goodwill on Beal Parkway in Fort Walton Beach.
McCarroll said she knows the VITA program will start small, but hopes it will expand as residents learn about the program. She said she hopes to get plenty of volunteers by the last week in January and always is willing to educate more any time of the year.
“Without volunteers the program is not possible,” she said. “This is completely community-owned.”
Niceville resident Rick Deal said he has a lot more time on his hands since he retired in September from his job as a financial manager. He heard about the VITA program and was interested.
“I wanted to do something for my community,” Deal said. “There’s a lot of people out there that don’t understand the importance of good money management.
“This is an opportunity for me to help others learn how to not live paycheck-to-paycheck.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Angel McCurdy at 850-315-4432 or amccurdy@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AngelMnwfdn.