Tax department sees electronic filing as a chance to save the state money

With the majority of taxpayers filing their returns electronically these days, the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (DRS) has announced that it will no longer be mailing you your tax booklets.

According to a press release issued today (Dec. 28), the DRS is following in the footsteps of the federal Internal Revenue Service and revenue service departments in several other states.

According to the CT DRS, this last filing season only 8 percent of individual returns were from the booklets that were mailed. In other words, only 125,000 of the 1.6 million returns came from the mailed booklets.

Of the 1.6 million that didn’t use the booklets, 1.2 million tax filers did so online. The others used forms they downloaded or picked up at the library, town hall or other locations such as tax preparation services.

Beginning in January 2011, booklets will be made available at the library, post office and town halls – as they have been, anyway.

The new booklets and forms will be available shortly after the New Year, the DRS release states.

And as is the case now, taxpayers also have the option of downloading and printing their own copies of the documents they need from the DRS Web site at www.ct.gov/DRS

Get even more info

By going to www.ct.gov/DRS, you not only can download forms, you can look for locations where you can find tax booklets and learn about electronic filing through the state’s free Taxpayer Service Center, and other electronic filing methods such as Fed/State e-file and tax preparation software.

The site also offers information about the free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program for low income individuals and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program.

Posted Dec. 28, 2010

Mansfield council postpones Storrs Center meeting to Wednesday

Inclement weather Sunday and Monday forced the town council to resched­ule its meeting to Wednesday to discuss a proposed agreement with the developers of the first phase of the Storrs Center project.

The council had been sched­uled to meet in executive session Monday at 6 p.m. to discus re­visions to the proposed agree­ment, followed by an open meet­ing at 7:30 p.m. It will now meet Wednesday, with executive and open sessions scheduled for the same times, in the Audrey P. Beck Municipal Office Building.

Mayor Elizabeth “Betsy” Pater­son said the council decided Mon­day to postpone its meeting to avoid having councilmen, town staff and residents driving while the town continued to clear road­ways Monday evening.

“I think it was certainly so resi­dents and staff didn’t have to be on the road,” she said.

Both supporters and opponents of the proposed agreement have come out to various meetings to voice their opinions of the docu­ment.

The council has been discuss­ing the proposed agreement with Leyland Allicance LLC, and Ed­ucation Realty Trust, or EDR, for the first round of construction for the $220-million mixed-use Storrs Center.

Leyland Alliance is the mas­ter developer for Storrs Center and has contracted with EDR to build and manage 290 rental units planned for phases 1A and 1B.

The document – currently av­ailable on the town’s web site, www. mansfieldct. gov – would spell out the responsibilities of the town and both developers.

The council unveiled a proposed agreement to the public Dec. 1, followed by a public hearing a roughly week later and discussion amongst councilmen Dec. 13.

Some councilmen raised con­cerns about the agreement, lead­ing to a revised draft that will be up for discussion Wednesday.

Among other revisions, council­men asked for additional language for EDR to target a broad range of tenants after raising concerns about the company’s track record of building student housing.

The council has also referred to the planning and zoning commis­sion, which is scheduled to review the agreement on Monday, Jan. 3. State statutes require the town to refer agreements to the PZC when they involve land acquisi­tion so the commission can ensure the agreements fit with the town’s plan of conservation and develop­ment.

The council is waiting for a PZC recommendation before holding its own vote, and state statutes require a two-thirds majority by the council for approval should the PZC recommend rejecting the agreement.

Posted 12-28-2010!

Mansfield woman escapes injury as tree smashes into home

A woman avoided serious injury Monday afternoon when this tree toppled onto an apartment located at the rear of a home at 102 Depot Road in Mansfield. Fortunately, JoAnne Wood was outside walking her dog when the accident happened. Contributed photo by April Holinko

One family is thankful no one – including the family dog – was killed or injured after a tree, possibly uprooted by strong winds, fell onto their home Monday afternoon.

JoAnne Wood said she was walking her dog around 3 p.m. Monday when she heard a pine tree near her Depot Road home start to crack.

Wood lives in a secondary suite attached to the home owned by her daughter and son-in-law. Her son-in-law, Jody Tiffany, declined to comment Tuesday morning.

“I heard (the tree) cracking and then realized it was coming down fast,” Wood said, adding she immediately began calling for the dog, an 8-pound dachshund.

The tree landed on the roof of Wood’s secondary suite, but it also trapped the dog underneath outside.

Wood said no one else was home at the time, so no one was injured, while the tree also did not hit anything else.

She said she was worried the dog was killed in the incident, but the dog immediately came out “hopping” from under the tree with no serious injuries.

Wood said upper part of the tree landed on the dog and the shape of the branches landed around it, allowing the dog to escape, although the dog was “shaking” after being startled.

The tree landed on the roof of the second­ary suite and caused damage to a ceiling inside, but did not cause structural damage, Mansfield Fire Chief David Dagon said.

“It missed the window and it missed a lot of things,” Wood said.

Dagon said the tree also damaged a portion of the ceiling in the home and Wood said the “whole floor was covered with plaster” under the area where the tree landed.

Wood also said the rest of her secondary suite is OK and she was even able to remain in the suite Monday evening.

“I’m only out a light or two,” Wood said.

April Holinko, a neighbor, said Wood and her family were “very calm” after the Mansfield Fire Department and building officials said the structure was fine. “Thank God it worked out the way it did,” Holinko said, adding the entire tree was uprooted from the ground.

Dagon said the fire department was not able to determine what caused the tree to fall, but believed strong winds remaining after this weekend’s snowstorm likely played a factor.

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said figures from Windham Airport indicate wind gusts as high as 45 mph occurred around the time Wood said the tree fell Monday afternoon.

He said the wind peaked at 52 mph late Sunday night, and remained strong throughout the day Monday before dying down over­night.

The wind will pick up again today, with fore­casted gusts as high as 30 to 35 mph, before dropping back down tonight and remaining calm for the next few days.

Posted 12-28-2010