MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The Station's Tax Center wrapped up the annual electronic tax filing for all Marines, Sailors, Department of Defense civilians, and Status of Forces Agreement employees residing here, June 15.
Beginning Feb.2, the Tax Center accommodated 2,006 residents of the Station with tax filings, according to Capt. Matt Spurlock, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron legal assistance officer.
In the previous year, Iwakuni residents saved more than $144,000 in value services, which is tax preparations fees, and almost $2 million in facilitated refunds, said Capt. Jeff Munoz, H&HS Tax Center officer in charge.
This year, the Tax Center accumulated $2,362,902 in refunds for personnel here in the five months that it provided it's services.
"It is a significant amount for all the personnel that came and did their taxes here," said Munoz.
According to Tax Center statistics, residents saved more than $313,000 in value services. The highest amount saved for value services was more than $130,000 from Feb. 16 through March 15.
A total amount of service members that took advantage of the tax filings were 1,430 from the pay grades of E-1 to E-5, 270 from the pay grades E-6 to E-9, 104 officers and more than 30 family members or retired service members, said Munoz.
It took eight enlisted service members and an officer to provide the services to the Station, working more than an estimated 8,000 hours.
"At first it was rather strenuous, being that we only had four days of training for the (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program, dealing with so many people and so much paperwork," said Sgt. Amber M. Torija, first year Tax Center volunteer. "But being able to help the service members save money made it worth it."
The working hours for the Tax Center were from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, but if a volunteer was still in the middle of helping a customer, the center would stay open until the job was done, Torija said.
Compared to results from the previous year, the ELF program saved residents more money than they would have filing their taxes with a commercial business.
"It's free, you can't beat that. This year we had more people than the previous year, which is good for everyone," said Munoz.
With the steady flow of taxpayers visiting the Tax Center, the VITA program proves it makes a difference.
The ELF program grows as more residents respond to the free resource, which proves to be a success, said Munoz. At the rate that it is going, compared to previous years, the program will save residents more and more every year.