A nonprofit is now helping South Carolina residents file their income tax returns for free online with in-person help.
SC Thrive offers a free website for filing individual tax returns, special certified tax sites for in-person help or tax clinic statewide as part of its mission to help South Carolinians reach self-sustainability.
For those who may not have filed their tax returns in several years, SC Thrive can help them file going back the last three years. “They can actually do it themselves or they can actually go out and find a tax site in the area, in the state,” Senior Regional Director Richard Moses said. “They can actually have a counselor sit down with you face-to-face there, too.”
The group also offers free programs for financial wellness education. “These (tax) refunds can actually change their lives,” Moses said. “And without teaching them how to better manage those resources, they can’t better manage that tax refund that they’re going to be getting in a few weeks.”
Moses also said it saves the average income tax filer about $243 a year when they do not pay someone to prepare their taxes and instead E-file their own state and federal tax returns. “That’s also 243 extra dollars that that person can actually put into a savings account or put toward retirement or put towards a down payment of some sort — on education, or even a house. So every little bit helps,” he said.