Financial Behaviors Financial Inclusion Practice & Research Tools

The Volunteer Income Tax Preparer’s Toolkit: Showing Clients Why Tax Time Is the Right Time to Save

This toolkit is designed to give income tax preparers a background on the whys and hows. The chapters show why it is important to encourage Volunteer Income Tax Assistance clients to save at tax time, and they provide evidence to show why encouragement works. The toolkit also offers guidance on how to comfortably, confidently use data, messaging, and behavioral economics techniques in encouraging your clients to save. It offers insights from other VITA sites’ experiences in operating tax-time savings campaigns.

Project: Refund to Savings (R2S)

Citation

Covington, M., Oliphant, J., Perantie, D., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2015, September). The volunteer income tax preparer’s toolkit: Showing clients why tax time is the right time to save (CSD Toolkit No. 15-56). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.