Pat Gentile is a member of the DMA, and will talk to us about his work helping less-privileged families and individuals to cope with and manage the tax-preparation process. Pat is presently the Executive Director of Virtual VITA, Inc. (VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance.) He works directly in partnership with the IRS to assist low-income at-risk families and elderly households with free tax preparation, tax counseling and advocacy. His group is the first within the State to receive IRS approval to provide clients with virtual online tax preparation utilizing a client’s cell phone. His team is the Lead Coalition Partner of the nationally approved virtual tax prep program called “Get Your Refund,” and is responsible for training other VITA Partners throughout CT and Rhode Island. Locally, he and his 60+ retired professional colleagues provide pro bono tax preparation throughout the inner cities and towns in Fairfield County serving over 8,000+ clients each year.
Pat is a retired CPA with over 30 years of experience in business and spent the majority of his career rising through the ranks of American Banknote Corporation, one of the world’s largest providers of secure transaction systems and solutions. He retired in 2014 as the CFO and COO of global operations to spend some quiet time with his wife Terry. Pat and Terry are the proud parents of two Eagle Scouts and when not constrained by Covid they enjoy traveling and spending time with their friends in Darien.
Members wishing to find out more about Pat’s process prior to the presentation should click on the following link. You should be prepared to enter information and data to make the demo work for you: Virtual VITA 2020 Online Demo Tax Prep Link
Arranged by Charles Salmans
Bryan Hooper’s notes on the talk:
DMA member Pat Gentile talked to us about the single most critical anti-poverty tool in Connecticut – the volunteer income tax assistance program (VITA) for less-privileged families and individuals to cope with and manage the tax-preparation process, resulting in tax credits and refunds going rapidly to clients. Pat is the Executive Director of Virtual VITA and manages a team of around 100 volunteers out of 1500 in Connecticut, operating at 120 brick and mortar sites and helping complete 52,000 tax returns annually. Nationwide, the organization has 65,000 volunteers at 9,000 sites, helping clients file 3.5 million returns.
The key component driving their work is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that rewards low-income people for working, and can result in up to $10,000 in refunds going to a family with dependent children. Additionally, as a result of CARES legislation enacted during the Covid crisis, the team is working to aid clients to file tax returns to qualify for up to $1,200 per individual and $500 for each child: there are around 90,000 people needing help to file a return before they can receive the refunds they are due under CARES.
Overall, there are 213,000 households in Connecticut who filed tax returns in 2018 with an average adjusted gross income of $24,500; the EITC for those households was around $2,700, and those refunds contributed significantly to the local economy. However, despite the advantages to be gained, it is estimated that 21% of qualifying households do not claim the EITC, and Virtual VITA’s challenge is to overcome ignorance and fear to gain the confidence of those potential clients and help them take advantage of the system. The scale of the task facing Pat and his team is that 579,000 households qualify for their assistance: that is 42% of the population of the State of Connecticut.
Pat’s story of the efforts and the successes achieved during the rush to cope with returns in the lockdown situation engendered by Covid is one of patience and persistence, and a powerful testament to his ability to work with both the bureaucracy of governments and the oft-encountered hostility and suspicion of potential clients.
You can see the presentation at https://youtu.be/vrEVBhXfAWg, and view his slides on Virtual VITA Project – VirtualVITA Inc Executive Summary for DMA REVISED.