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Workers

Continued from page 4 inspectors “to do more” in their duty of making sure that businesses and industries follow labor standards as well as health and safety practices one of the department’s pillars of ensuring social justice for workers.

He said the summit was organized to “refocus inspection priorities toward industries and sectors based on the risks and hazards to which (workers) are exposed and not only on numerical targets.”

He added that regional offices tend to lean towards micro and small establishments in an effort to meet numerical targets.

“Targeting small businesses “is not bad per se, the department’s updated strategic inspection framework calibrates the logic whether inspection is the most appropriate intervention DOLE can offer to improve the situation of these enterprises and their workers,” the DOLE chief said.

The summit, the first of its kind since 2015, gathered all DOLE regional directors, service office heads, and the department’s 900-strong labor inspectors to formulate more strategic approaches and strengthen the technical and managerial capabilities of its inspection workforce.

Laguesma also lauded the department for its 2022 inspection milestones and for increasing the compliance rate in both labor standards and occupational safety.

Last year, the DOLE has inspected more than 80,000 establishments, achieving an eight percent jump from the previous year benefitting almost 4.5 million workers. (MNS)

Taxes

Continued from page 1 estimator tool.

“All of those are available in English as well as those languages that I listed,” she said.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) provides help and counseling to taxpayers, free of charge, especially about EITC and additional Child Tax credits which can be hard to understand, Simon added.

“During the last two years, we had about 50,000 volunteers throughout the United States doing tax returns. This year, as of today, we have 81,000 volunteers in the United States and Puerto Rico preparing free tax returns for individuals and families.”

Simon said the IRS provides information in a way that taxpayers can have faith and trust that their tax return is being done correctly, that there is no scam going on, that there is no fraud. A lot of people used VITA. Last year, VITA volunteers prepared 2.2 million tax returns.

“Each one of these volunteers is trained by the IRS. They are certified. They are tested. So, you know you are getting accurate information,” she said.

There is a Taxpayer Assistance Locator tool at IRS.gov to find the local office where you can set up an appointment and talk to someone in person.

This year is going to be “significantly better” than the last few difficult years of tax returns some of which the IRS is still processing, Moorehead predicted. You could get more money in your pocket, he says.