Free Tax Help

Photo: TurboTax

The deadline for filing taxes is almost here. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) offers free tax preparation services to low and moderate income families to help them avoid costly income tax preparation fees and ensure eligible tax credits.

Did you earn less than $52,000 in 2013? Do you live in the Greater Atlanta area? If you answered yes, you may be eligible to have your taxes prepared and filed free by one of our trained volunteers.

Click here to find a VITA site near you.

The VITA program, in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a service designed for low-to-moderate income individuals to promote and support free tax preparation service. Free tax preparation supports VITA's goal to build financial stability for everyone in our community by:

- Saving moderate and lower-income families the cost of paying for tax preparation
- Making sure that working families get the tax credits they deserve, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit
- Preventing families from taking out a loan against their own money, which is what they must do to get an "instant refund" through a commercial preparer

United Way of Greater Atlanta is also offering a free tax program in conjunction with the Walmart Foundation, Goodwill Industries and the National Disability Institute. For more information visit: MyFreeTaxes.com

Support Services

Did you know that AID Atlanta offers a variety of support services? These include: short-term financial assistance, security deposit assistance program, short-term financial assistance, tenant based rental assistance, medication and insurance assistance and transportation assistance.

Medication and Insurance Assistance (DPH)

AID Atlanta is an official enrollment site for the State of Georgia’s Department of Public Health (DPH) AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and the Health Insurance Continuation Program (HICP).  Eligible clients are assisted with applying and re-certifying for these programs.

Though AID Atlanta Staff will assist with the application and re-certification application process, DPH makes all final approvals on every application and the funds are directly administered through the state program.  All case management and Medication Insurance Assistance Specialist staff are also trained to help eligible clients apply for medication assistance programs offered through various pharmaceutical companies.

Transportation Assistance (HOPWA)

Transportation assistance is provided to individuals with little or no income who are seeking housing and other related case management services.  MARTA Breeze Cards and half-fare Cards are provided to case managed clients at all AID Atlanta case managed sites.

Learn more about all of the support services offers by AID Atlanta by visiting their site today.

New Ideas in Treating HIV

The AIDS conference was held in Boston this past week, and quite a bit of promising information was shared by doctors.

A group of doctors shared the news that a baby girl born in Los Angeles last April was born with the AIDS virus and is now in remission possibly because of very early treatment. The baby was treated four hours after birth. She is the second baby to go into remission after early treatment, a similar outcome happened a month earlier for a baby in Mississippi.

Doctors are still treating the Los Angeles baby for AIDS, although it does appear she is in remission and doctors are cautiously optimistic. The Mississippi baby is no longer on AIDS medicine.

Scientists have also modified genes in the blood cells of a dozen adults, the modification helps them resist HIV. The hope is that this approach will be able to keep some people from needing medicines to keep HIV under control in the future.

"The ultimate goal is to create an immune system in the body that's been edited genetically so the cells are not capable of being infected with HIV," said director Dr. Anthony Fauci, "but we are a long way from there at this point."

Fundraising Goal met for HIV Vaccine

Immunity Project has reached its fundraising goal of $462,000 using crowdfunding. The funds will be used to complete a final experiment before clinical trials begin on humans. All donations are tax-deductible. The Phase 1 clinical trials for the vaccine will cost approximately $25 million dollars.

HIV/AIDS was selected by the Immunity Project because over 35 million people are currently living with HIV. Over 30 million lives have been lost to HIV since 1983, with 4,000 people losing the battle each day. Developing an HIV vaccine is of the utmost urgency.

The crowdfunding campaign of Immunity Project has drawn criticism for it's lack of scientific research and peer-reviewed processes. Most vaccine ideas fail, for various reasons, and the HIV vaccine that Immunity Project is developing is a long way off from known success, approval, and being available.

Despite the criticisms against Immunity Project, it has increased awareness about the work being done on an HIV vaccine and they are using the funds raised to further their research on the current vaccine. Whether the vaccine works remains to be seen, but having a new view of the scientific process behind developing vaccines is interesting. Immunity Project has also increased awareness on the need for an HIV vaccine.