This year, Tax Day is Wednesday, April 15. And if you’re in need of advice (or running low on time before the deadline), a great option might be to seek the help of a free tax clinic to file your taxes. Skip to where to find free tax help near you.

KQED reached out to community tax sites across the Bay Area to ask what information they wish their clients knew before using their services — and what’s new about filing this year. Keep reading for their advice.

Skip to:

• What to have ready before filing
• Things to keep in mind when talking to a tax filer
• Running out of time and thinking about not filing this year?

Where to find free tax help near you

Across the Bay Area, dozens of nonprofit organizations and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites are offering you free tax filing services, both in person and virtually — often right up until April 15.

Many of these sites offer assistance in Spanish, Cantonese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and other languages. Some also offer unscheduled walk-in appointments.

Find free tax help near you online:

• Visit myfreetaxes.org to schedule an in-person or virtual appointment (or to file on your own for free)
• Use United Way Bay Area’s map.

Find free tax help near you by phone:

• Call 211
• Text “taxes” to 211-211 (a text help line from United Ways of California and 211) to find a free tax filing site near you.

What to have ready before filing

The last two weeks before Tax Day tend to be the busiest period for free tax clinics, with many seeing up to hundreds of people each week.

For this reason, the tax aid groups KQED spoke to stressed just how important it is for filers to have everything ready ahead of time — to make the process as easy and fast as possible. So, a few days before your filing appointment, start getting all your documents together in a “filing kit.”

Make sure your kit includes the following:

1. Your photo ID

2. Your Social Security card, or a letter from the Social Security Administration that verifies your SSN

• If you do not have a Social Security number, bring your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) provided by the IRS instead. An ITIN is a number created by the IRS for taxpayers who don’t have a Social Security number due to their immigration status.
• As of Feb. 5, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the IRS from sharing with the Department of Homeland Security the personal information of taxpayers filing with an ITIN for immigration enforcement purposes. The courts have not yet reached a final decision on whether federal agencies can share tax data with each other, but in the meantime, the IRS cannot share personal information, like a taxpayer’s address, with agencies like ICE.
• Get more information on how to request an ITIN.

3. The Social Security numbers and/or ITIN numbers of everyone you’ll be claiming in your taxes this year

4. Income statement forms from your employer such as a W-2, 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC or 1099-K.

• Starting this year, you should receive in the mail a 1099-K form if you use online payment systems like Venmo, Cash App or PayPal, and received over $20,000 in more than 200 transactions. You may still receive a 1099-K form if you made less than this amount. The IRS stated this year that “you must report all income on your tax return,” no matter the amount of reported payments.
• If you did not receive a 1099-K form — but made over $20,000 through online platforms — let your filer know to prevent the risk of a potential audit from the IRS.
• If you claimed unemployment benefits in 2025, the EDD also should have sent you a 1099-G form.

5. Proof of health care coverage

• This will be a 1095-B form, or 1095-A form if you’re insured through Covered California.
• If you didn’t receive a 1095-B or 1095-A in the mail, and you were enrolled in a health care plan in 2025, contact your care provider or access your online health care account to have it ready before you visit a tax clinic.

Things to keep in mind when talking to a tax filer

Once you have your filing kit assembled, make sure you share everything with your tax filer. And even if you misplaced a form, let your filer know which benefits you received in 2025.

It’s common for filers to go to a tax clinic believing they qualify for certain credits, when that may not be the case. For example, some think that everyone is eligible to receive the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, regardless of income.

But in reality, this cash rebate depends on how much income you receive and how many dependents you claim in your tax return. For example, if you are filing jointly with your spouse and only have one child, your 2025 income must have been less than $57,554.  If you’re filing by yourself and have no dependents, your income last year must have been under $19,104 to qualify for this credit.

The IRS has a complete list of income limits for families to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

California has its own state version of this rebate, called the California Earned Income Tax Credit. But only families that made up to $32,900 in 2025 are eligible.

If you don’t have proof of health care coverage (like a 1095-B or 1095-A form) because you don’t have health insurance, you should make that very clear to your tax preparer.

You may very likely be penalized by the state of California for being uninsured. You can use the penalty estimator tool on the state’s Franchise Tax Board website to calculate how big this penalty could be for you.

Running out of time and thinking about not filing this year?

Getting all your documents together and finding a place that can help you file  can sometimes be overwhelming. And while catching up with Uncle Sam may feel stressful, there’s consequences if you don’t file, said Minnie Sage, program director of San Francisco-based Tax-Aid.

“It’s never a good idea to not pay your taxes. It’s going to cost you in the long run,” she said, adding that the IRS has set the interest rate for unpaid taxes by individuals at 7%, and there are also additional monthly penalties for failing to file and pay taxes.

“Regardless to how much you owe, that’s going to add up,” Sage explained.

Depending on your financial situation, you may be eligible to receive a refund or certain credits from years past, but you only have up to three years from that tax year to claim this money. Once that time is up, these funds become property of the federal government.

And what if you’re unable to pay everything you owe up front when you file? Ask whoever is helping you file about setting up a payment. You can do this at the time you file, or later on the IRS website.

KQED’s Mary Franklin Harvin contributed to this story. A version of this story originally published on April 1, 2022.