05 Aug 2024 Arkansas Asset Builders celebrates eight years of service to Arkansans

CONWAY — Arkansas Asset Builders celebrated its eighth anniversary the week of July 19, highlighting the impact that the nonprofit organization has made over the last eight years. The organization provides free volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) and financial literacy programs to low-to-moderate income households across the central Arkansas region. Over the past eight tax seasons, Arkansas Asset Builders’ volunteers have prepared 3,117 tax returns, saving hardworking taxpayers more than $750,000 in tax preparation fees.

Joyia Yorgey, founder and current executive director, first became passionate about free tax preparation as a VITA volunteer with Community Tax Aid in Washington, DC. After relocating to Conway with her family in 2015, she saw that there was limited local access to free tax prep services and VITA volunteer opportunities. To address this need, Joyia founded Arkansas Asset Builders in July 2016 with the mission to empower hardworking Arkansans to flourish economically through free income tax preparation and financial literacy programs.

During the organization’s first tax season in the spring of 2017, its volunteers prepared 154 tax returns. Demand for their services grew quickly however, topping 400 tax returns in 2019. This year has been the largest tax season to date with 616 federal returns prepared by its volunteers and over $625,000 in federal tax refunds claimed. This brings the cumulative amount of federal tax refunds claimed by the Arkansas Asset Builders’s VITA clients to more than $2.9 million.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services are available to taxpayers with annual income below $66,000, taxpayers with a disability, and/or taxpayers with limited English fluency. Arkansas Asset Builders operates a VITA site at the Faulkner County Library from late January through mid-April each year. Information about this site’s hours and eligibility guidelines is available at arkansasassetbuilders.org/VITA. Additional free tax assistance resources are available online at myfreetaxes.com.