Vandenberg office, reps prepare to offer free tax-filing assistance

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Steve Bauer
  • 30th Space Wing Public Affairs
As the Defense Finance and Accounting Service prepares to distribute the millions of tax statements due to Department of Defense customers by the end of January, Vandenberg's Tax Office is currently training and organizing a team of 27 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance representatives from around the base to help people with tax-filing.

VITA reps will help assist the Vandenberg Tax Office's workload during tax season by providing free tax preparation services to all active-duty members, their dependents and retirees at the representatives' place of work.

"Not only will they be available to assist, the VITA reps will have critical IRS information readily available on topics such as the Earned Income Credit, Additional Child Credit, deductions, and other important financial aspects that may be on people's minds," said Ann Fox, the Vandenberg Tax Office coordinator.

The Vandenberg Tax Office, located in the 30th Space Wing headquarters building (Building 10577, Room A-101), is open year-round to ensure the deployed active-duty population has access to tax help. The office is open for appointments and walk-ins Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

"We do walk-ins, but we prefer having people call us to schedule an appointment," said Fox. "Extra effort is given to deploying service members."

Before visiting the Vandenberg Tax Office, or one of the base's VITA representatives, people are asked to gather and have all of the pertinent documents and forms needed for filing income taxes ready for review prior to receiving assistance.

Some of the most common documents required at tax appointments are:

· A copy of Social Security cards for the taxpayer, spouse and all dependents
· A voided check for those members who desire direct deposit of their return
· Form W-2 from each employer. Active duty members may obtain this form from MyPay on the Air Force Portal, www.my.af.mil  
· Childcare/ daycare expense information

"We do everything for those people who are eligible for assistance - we do it all to include federal and state returns," Fox said. "They just give us the paperwork and the information and we fill out everything for them. We do our filing electronically, which means that people can have their refund in as little as 10 days."

For more information about the Vandenberg Tax Office, or to make an appointment, call 606-3650.

Vandenberg's 2012 VITA representatives:

30th Comptroller Squadron:
Tech. Sgt. Hillary Johnson, 606-4630
Staff Sgt. Orville Jackson, 606-4628

30th Civil Engineer Squadron:
1st Lt. Christian Des Champs, 606-3590
Staff Sgt. Lee Pietryk, 606-2337
Staff Sgt. Carl Ries, 606-5885
Staff Sgt. Todd Zahler, 606-8202
Staff Sgt. David Westpy, 606-5334

30th Force Support Squadron:
Senior Airman Jinji Batoon, 606-4821

30th Logistics Readiness Squadron:
Tech. Sgt. Lisa Koerner, 605-7497
Staff Sgt. Rachael Turner, 606-5115

30th Medical Group:
Capt. Kenneth Rosenblum, 606-7959
Tech. Sgt. Roy Champion, 606-0648
Tech. Sgt. Jonathan Cavier, 606-7811
Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Taylor, 606-8939
Tech. Sgt. Carolyn Yates, 606-8475

30th Operations Group:
Airman 1st Class Marcus McGinnis, 605-8155

30th Operations Support Squadron:
Tech. Sgt. Stephannie Fletcher, 606-6461

30th Space Communications Squadron:
1st Lt. Matthew Dombrowski, 606-5410
Staff Sgt. Brandon Wright, 606-9313
Airman 1st Class Michelle Miranda, 606-1906

392nd Training Squadron:
2nd Lt. Jose Mora, 606-3650

576th Flight Test Squadron:
Capt. Kyle Davidson, 605-6345
Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Bennett, 606-4099
Staff Sgt. Tyson Goodman, 605-7839

1st Air and Space Test Squadron:
2nd Lt. Yong Sinn, 605-8565

2nd Range Operations Squadron:
1st Lt. Jason Brosseau, 605-6436

4th Space Launch Squadron:
1st Lt. Daniel Mortenson, 605-2130