United Way Free Tax Coalition eases the filing burden and ensures people get the refunds they deserve

Millie Napoletano has volunteered with the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches’ free tax preparation service for more than 11 years. Now that site’s coordinator, she has witnessed many times how it helps people who need it the most.

Just one example: Some qualify for refunds that can range from one-third to one-half of their yearly incomes, Napoletano said one busy Thursday morning at the association’s Natrona Heights office. “It’s amazing how people can survive on the incomes I see come through here.”

In 2024 she and her volunteers at that site and two others in Tarentum and Fawn completed and filed 332 individual 2023 tax returns. That work resulted in $358,804 in refunds, including $110,000 through earned income tax credits and $47,000 in child tax credits.

AVAC is part of the Free Tax Preparation Coalition that United Way of Southwest Pennsylvania runs with lead partner Just Harvest for residents and families earning $65,000 or less annually. The leaders know those refund dollars mean rent and mortgage fees can be paid on time, needed vehicle and home repairs can happen, and credit card and other expenses can be covered. 

Plus their volunteers extend their clients’ refunds, saving them the fees preparers charge.

In the 2023-24 tax season, the Free Tax Prep Coalition filed 8,952 tax returns, claimed $11.96 million in refunds and saved taxpayers $2.42 million in tax prep fees, according to Emily Schmidlapp, United Way’s manager of Moving to Financial Stability. Those totals include both in-person tax prep services and MyFreeTaxes by United Way, its online tax prep service.

“Having served as a volunteer tax preparer with the coalition myself for many years, I know that it’s an incredible feeling to have such an immediate and significant impact on people’s lives,” she wrote in an email. “Even if they don’t get a tax refund from the process, every person who goes to a Free Tax Prep Coalition site saves an average of $270 in tax prep fees, which makes a big difference. This service keeps money in the pockets of the people who have earned it and now can spend it in our communities.” 

Since 2009, the 3,545 Free Tax Prep volunteers and United Way’s self-serve MyFreeTaxes.org website have completed 120,500 tax returns at no cost to taxpayers, she reported. From 2009-24, Free Tax Prep has generated approximately $198.6 million in refunds and saving $26.9 million in tax prep fees regionally.

In 2025, Just Harvest’s staff and volunteers have been off to a fast start completing tax returns for participants. As of last week, its four sites have completed 635 returns for $1.9 million in refunds. Of those taxpayers, 49% received the earned income tax credit, said Kristie Weiland Stagno, its Free Tax Prep Coalition director. 

Just Harvest’s goal for its own sites is to complete 3,500 returns this year, an increase from the 3,344 it filed last year that yielded $5.48 million in refunds.

The nonprofit added free tax preparation to its list of services in 2003. It served 1,500 people annually by 2006, and that number has grown ever since.

Anna Woomer, volunteer coordinator for the service at Just Harvest since August, grew up in Washington County’s coal towns. She knew about the nonprofit as some family members had to rely on SNAP benefits. As a pastor’s kid, she said, she grew up in neighborhoods with people looking for such resources to put food on the table.

Managing volunteers at all United Way coalition sites means recruiting them, coordinating that effort with partners, answering questions and concerns, and scheduling training. Then she places them, and the work begins. Some sites also help with recruitment, and Woomer said they’re careful not to duplicate outreach for volunteers from organizations, clubs, churches and other groups. 

Woomer said the coalition has about 400 volunteers at its more than 20 sites. They range in age from young people, mainly college students who need course credit and internships, to senior citizens. Duquesne University students work at Just Harvest’s South Side office and other sites. University of Pittsburgh has two sites staffed by about 30 students this year, Woomer said, in Oakland and Squirrel Hill. About 40% of all volunteers return annually.

To ensure those sites are open as many hours and days as possible, Just Harvest hires reviewers and site coordinators. That includes offering Saturday and evening appointments so people can take advantage of the service without missing work.

Woomer works closely with Vaughn Schmid, Just Harvest’s training manager, throughout the year. Before the trainings begin, Schmid reviews and updates materials. After those sessions end, the two switch off as night site coordinators at Just Harvest’s South Side office; both prepare returns.

Returning volunteers take a refresher course in December each year. Multiple sessions for new volunteers happen in January at United Way headquarters in the Strip District and this year at Community College of Allegheny County’s Boyce campus.

Basic preparer sessions encompass two five-hour sessions, a mix of material on general guidelines and tax law, some available online. He teaches those with Stagno, Woomer said. After some practice tests and listening to recordings, the volunteers take their tests.

Schmid said the entire coalition saw a quick start this year, which he attributes to recovery from the pandemic and people getting back into the swing of things.

He started as a volunteer 11 years ago while in graduate school, and now Schmid works for Just Harvest part time. The BNY client service technical support employee finishes his work Downtown, then hops on the T to meet with clients at least three evenings a week. He also helps on Saturdays.

United Way’s 211 system and the MyFreeTaxes section of its website handles the scheduling, which also offers help for those who want to complete their own returns. Some partners, like AVAC, will also help people set up appointment times.

Schmid said many people fear completing their own taxes because they have heard Internal Revenue Service horror stories and because it can garnish paychecks. He’d like to ease those concerns.

“Honestly, the thing that nobody understands or knows, as long as you are working with them, they are actually easy,” Schmid said. He’s seen repayment schedules as low as $20 a month. “Where you get in trouble is if you ignore them or avoid. Then you get penalties, and they start calculating interest on top of everything. That’s when you get into the big stuff and let it go or ignore it for years. If you just face it, get a payment agreement in place, you will be in great shape.”

When clients come in with IRS letters, “we will give them the best advice we can. If it’s too complex, we will recommend they go to a low-income tax clinic.”

Pitt has one. The Second Chance Inc. has a free legal clinic that lists help for taxes.

Like Woomer, Schmid has empathy for the people he sees. He traces that back to his mother, a Canadian who came here after she met and married his father, collecting dimes with her for March of Dimes in their Munhall neighborhood.

She never became a citizen because she hated tests and worked two jobs, her son recalled. He does this work in her memory and especially likes working with immigrants.

“Some of the more memorable [returns] are for immigrants who have no idea about taxes.  I don’t think taxes are as complex anywhere else in the world,” Schmid said. “That definitely drives me.”

In addition to current taxes, he and the others help clients fix past incorrect returns, noting people can go back up to three years if that happens. Schmid also counsels people who come in with the many different 1099 forms the self-employed and those who do gig work like ride-hailing services must submit. He explains how an individual retirement account contribution can decrease tax bills, too.

“It’s good to know all this stuff. I can help people and educate them and make sure that they know all the things they can do,” he said. “If you’re wealthy and can afford an accountant, they will tell you all the things you can do. The regular working man doesn’t have that ability.”

Schmid has never calculated how many hours he’s volunteered for and worked at the coalition. He just enjoys it. That’s not gone unnoticed.

“Vaughn brings so much passion and care to his work at Just Harvest and the Free Tax Prep Coalition,” Schmidlapp said. “It’s not unique to him — all our volunteers are dedicated and compassionate — but it is special. And I’ve found that his lived experience makes him especially good at connecting with taxpayers and volunteers.”

 Napoletano feels the same way about her volunteers. The greeters, preparers and reviewers — 13 currently — have worked steadily these first weeks, and they know it will get busier. AVAC also has continued a drop-off service it started during the pandemic some people became accustomed to using then.

Those volunteers came to her aid when she headed to her father’s Mississippi home when he became ill. They covered for her until she could return.

“I love my people who are volunteering, especially my key people,” Napoletano said. “Our volunteers are fantastic. They’re committed. They want to do this. They want to help people. They want to be here.

“If you surround yourself with good people, everything is easy.”

AVAC’s office is a former doctor’s office and residence, and it’s close quarters. Greeters sit with people who complete their information in a small lobby, and preparers work in a kitchen and what used to be a patient exam room.

Napoletano said they adhere to appointments and don’t take walk-ins to be fair to all.

The Leechburg resident and owner of Market Street Art & Variety there started volunteering with AVAC at a former pastor’s suggestion. Napoletano, who worked for the former JC Penney call center for 28 years until it closed and filed taxes for her husband’s garage business, started as a preparer and moved up to assistant site coordinator then to her present position.

“I’ve been taught to enhance my inner tax geek. I used to say, ‘I hate taxes, like everybody else,’ ” she said. “It’s like a puzzle putting them together. I do enjoy that type of a challenge.”

 It’s the same for her volunteers, who want to help people. “We’re all of the same mindset.”

The work has changed her, too. “I used to be one of those who would look at people and say, ‘Just get a job.’ Now that I have firsthand experience, it’s not that simple all the time,” she said. “There’s a lot of factors.”

Napoletano lauds AVAC and its staff for its wide range of services, which includes a food bank, employment assistance, housing help and more. She and her volunteers help senior citizens apply for Pennsylvania’s property tax rebates, too.

The work all the volunteers do gives Woomer chills. “It is awesome to see people who have been doing this for years. I can see this myself. You just get into it. You can’t believe that you can help someone with this skill.”

Woomer would like to see Just Harvest and the coalition bring more tax refunds and less stress to more people.

She has a goal to do just that in the future: 100 more volunteers, a mix of young and older people, continuing the intergenerational element that makes the effort so awesome, Woomer said.

More information on the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s free tax service is available at  https://www.pa211.org/vita/.

Just Harvest’s four in-person tax preparation sites:  317 E. Carson St., Suite 153, Pittsburgh, 15219  (South Side, and it offers help for Spanish speakers), Bedford Envision Center, 2305 Bedford Ave., Pittsburgh, 15219 (Hill District); Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh, 3000 Brownsville Road, Pittsburgh, 15227 (Brentwood); and Community College of Allegheny County’s Boyce Campus, 595 Beatty Road, Monroeville, 15146. For more information: https://justharvest.org/get-help/tax-preparation/.

The three Allegheny Valley Association of Churches tax preparation sites: AVAC office, 1913 Freeport Road, Natrona Heights; Central Presbyterian Church, 305 Allegheny St., Tarentum 15084; and Center Church of Fawn Township, 1575 Donnellville Road, Natrona Heights, 15065.  For more information and days the sites are open: https://www.avaoc.org/.