Posted: Monday, July 25, 2011 6:01 pm

The numbers are finally in and once again the two volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) sites hosted by Dyersburg State Community College have proven a tremendous success.
This year, the VITA sites enabled 531 area residents to receive a combined total of $871,895 in tax refunds.
Last year the sites served 488 area residents and the combined total of tax refunds was $684,542.
The VITA site located on the Dyersburg campus filed a total of 242 returns and received a total of $430,194.
This year in Covington, the VITA site filed 289 returns for a total of $441,701 in refunds.
The sites were open to the public Jan. 24 through April 14.
“It has been a rewarding and exhausting season. We were open 188 hours with three faculty and staff member along with eight students working at the center.
The total earned income credit that was returned to the community equaled $184,199.
“As you can see, we had an extremely successful and busy tax season,” DSCC assistant professor of accounting Linda Ballard said.
DSCC joined the Family Self-Sufficiency Alliance of West Tennessee three years ago to provide the free service for area taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of less than $44,000.
The alliance is active in promoting economic self-sufficiency and financial stability by hosting, with the IRS and AARP, free tax preparation sites throughout West Tennessee.
The Alliance of West Tennessee was formed by the United Way of West Tennessee in cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service.
Local businesses, non-profit agencies, members of the faith-based community and the public sector are all members of the alliance.