For the past few months, HarborOne Credit Union has partnered with Self Help Inc., Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Shore (NHS) and the city of Brockton to offer an IRS sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at its MultiCultural Banking Center.

The service is free and provided to low- and moderate-income taxpayers. A number of these residents are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

As this was its first year HarborOne had originally set a goal of 200 completed tax returns, but by the end of the tax season, these volunteers had completed almost 350 returns.

Taxpayers filed electronically and most were able to get their returns back in less than two weeks. It is estimated that this free service saved these low- and moderate-income taxpayers nearly $100,000 in fees that they would collectively have had to pay to have their tax returns prepared by a private service.