IRS trained and certified volunteers soon will staff three income tax return assistance centers in Butler County.

To be eligible for a free tax return, a filer must make $50,000 gross or less and meet certain criteria. But Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) coordinator Jean Bowen said the average visitor seeking tax return assistance from Butler County last year made $16,245.

“Our goal is to reach people who do not file because they can’t afford to pay a preparer or they don’t know they qualify for tax credits and refunds,” Bowen said.

The bulk of the returns, representing 1,289 filers last year, were done at the Center for Community Resources on Main Street in Butler. There, the average income was $15,984.

More than 170 returns also were done in Slippery Rock, where the average income was $15,126, and in Cranberry Township where a similar number of returns were done and the average income was $19,345.

“There people come from all different walks of life. They are waiters and waitresses, self-employed people and manufacturers,” Bowen said.

In the returns done by VITA in Butler County, participants netted a total $2.2 million in returns.

A healthy share of that, $734,116, was money from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

“We’re expecting that to reach $1 million this year,” Bowen said.

Tax officials, including people at VITA and CCR, this year are promoting awareness of the tax credit, which can increase a single refund as much as $6,044. There credit is based on income and life circumstances.

“It is meant to give wage earners a hand up and keep them working,” Bowen said.

The Butler office opens Jan. 27.

The Slippery Rock office, at 165 Elm St., will open Feb. 1.

The Cranberry office, in the Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA, 2001 Ehrman Road, opens Feb. 6.

The VITA program is sponsored by the IRS, and coordinated in the County by CCR. That organization also runs a tax assistance center at the Empowerment Center on Market Street in Kittanning, which will be open only on Tuesdays beginning Feb. 11.

To make an appointment for a tax return, call 211.