Stay Informed!

By Lauren Williams on 06/23/2011 @ 03:30 PM

Tags: Events

Two weeks ago, I made my way to Chicago for the NCTC Conference, Mapping the Future, and a few follow-up meetings on the Schedule C VITA pilot. The NCTC staff fit some amazing content into just three days (June 7 – 9) – it was a great event!

At the conference, I participated in two presentations on our Self-Employment Tax Initiative work. On Wednesday afternoon, for the Practice Meets Policy session, I was a panelist alongside Nan Ellen Fuller (IRS) and Connie Evans, President and CEO of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. Nan Ellen gave the audience a run-down of the Schedule C VITA Pilot and explained the IRS’s interest in reassessing their administrative policy and testing out the viability of expanding scope at VITA sites to include Schedule C preparation. I shared some of the Self-Employment Tax Initiative’s recent policy work, including some findings that we collected through interviews with about challenges facing self-employed filers for which a policy solution might exist and the policy agenda we’ve been working on for the past few months. Even though the pilot is still very much under construction, it was really helpful to share our goals and recommendations thus far and hear feedback from an audience that works with this population – low-income (very) small business owners – during tax season each year. Connie Evans discussed some of AEO’s key policy priorities and highlighted some innovative opportunities for partnership in SETI’s policy work, where a joint effort could lend greater power in policy discussions.

On Thursday, I moderated a panel—The Schedule C VITA Pilot: Leveraging Tax Time to Empower Business Startups—featuring four of our Schedule C VITA Pilot program directors; even during the last few hours of the conference, this session was well attended. In this third and final session regarding the Schedule C VITA Pilot (the first was presented by Nan Ellen Fuller from the IRS and Barbara DelBene of CEP on Tuesday afternoon) the audience of community-based practitioners were eager to finally hear from other program directors offering tactical details about site operations, “sticky” ethical considerations that arise when introducing Schedule C preparation and the experience of participating in the Schedule C VITA Pilot this year.

My favorite session? I really enjoyed the keynote speaker on Wednesday — Gary Rivlin — and the panel that followed. Rivlin is an acclaimed journalist and brilliant storyteller, and his newest book was the topic of his remarks: Broke, USA. It’s always interesting & refreshing to hear about investigative writing like Rivlin’s—he tells the story of the rise of the poverty business and shows “how the working poor became big business.”

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