Connect for Health Colorado to provide tax assistance

Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s health-insurance exchange, and Tax Help Colorado are partnering to offer tax assistance to low-income Colorado residents.

The organizations will hold joint events at 21 tax sites across Colorado, including stops in Greeley and Fort Lupton.

Free tax filing services will be provided to individuals with household incomes of less than $50,000 in 2013, through Tax Help Colorado, a partnership between The Piton Foundation and the Colorado Community College System.

Tax Help Colorado operates free tax sites on community college campuses across the state, where Internal Revenue Service-certified students prepare and e-file tax returns free of charge.

Connect for Health Colorado will be present at these events to educate Colorado residents about open enrollment deadlines and financial help available to reduce the cost of health insurance.

Many of the people who are eligible for free tax filing services are also eligible for Medicaid or premium tax credits through the health insurance exchange, according to a release Friday from Connect for Health Colorado.

“By offering free tax assistance, Tax Help Colroado helps alleviate the financial burden of commercial tax preparation on working families while linking them to valuable tax benefits like the Earned Income Tax Credit,´ said Diane DiGiacomo of The Piton Foundation in a statement. “We know that many of our tax site clients are living without health insurance, so partnering with Connect for Health Colorado to provide enrollment assistance is a great fit.”

The full schedule of tax assistance events can be found here.

The Piton Foundation is a Denver-based nonprofit that works to help move Colorado families out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.

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