Last July, thanks to generous funding from the Vancouver Foundation, Disability Alliance BC launched its  provincial program Tax Assistance and Information for People with Disabilities (Tax AID DABC). The program’s focus is to help people receiving Persons with Disabilities (PWD) and Persons with Persistent and Multiple Barriers to Employment (PPMB) who have not filed their income taxes for multiple years to catch up on their taxes.

Over the past year, Tax AID DABC’s advocates have:

• Helped over 277 clients to file multiple years of taxes
• Filed over 730 years of taxes
• Helped clients from across BC to access over $470,000 in tax credits and benefits
• Answered hundreds of tax inquiries by email and over the phone

This year, we are expanding our provincial scope and will reach out to more communities across BC, particularly those in the North, the Interior, and Northern Vancouver Island. We can conduct remote tax filings for clients, or work with community groups to organize and deliver workshops across BC.

We welcome your referrals to Tax AID DABC. To speak to a Tax AID advocate, please call our Advocacy Access line at 604-872-1278 (Toll-free 1-800-663-1278) or email taxaid@disabilityalliancebc.therightfitbc.org.

For more information on setting up a workshop in your community, please email Program Manager Sam Turcott at sam@disabilityalliancebc.therightfitbc.org.

If you would like us to send you a brochure or poster, please email Chloe at chloe@disabilityalliancebc.therightfitbc.org.  More information about the program is also available on our website: https://taxaiddabc.org/

The Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation has issued this release about Tax AID DABC, in recognition of its first anniversary:

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2016SDSI0036-001288