Volunteer tax aides convince a senior

Published 4:41 pm Monday, December 31, 2007

Sometimes the adult children of smart, sassy seniors can’t get much of a break when it comes to convincing their parents that change is good.

Myrtle Lorenzo, 80, a bright, personable lady, was very proud when her daughter, Laura Little, had an idea that could help people get through the hassle of income tax season.

Lorenzo just wasn’t sure she needed or wanted to participate.

Here’s what Little, a tutor in the Rainier Learning Center at Everett Community College, did in less than two months last winter:

With the help of accounting professor Pat Coughlin and cooperation of the college, she set up an American Association of Retired Persons Tax-Aide center on campus. The free service assisted students and people from the community in preparing and filing their federal income tax forms.

She recruited volunteers, including students from the school’s accounting classes. She and Coughlin set up training programs and follow-up sessions to ensure each volunteer passed the IRS test for tax preparers before the tax clinic opened.

It helped that Little’s work at the college involves tutoring students in the accounting and computer application classes. Thus, she knew her potential manpower and technical resources.

A room was set up and equipped with computers for the sole use of preparing income tax with IRS software. The system is secure, designed to maintain confidentiality. she says.

And the people came: young students filing for the first time, single parents, senior citizens and ordinary working folks.

They sat with a preparer, saw their return take shape on the computer screen, asked and answered questions until they were confident their return was complete. A quality review person checked the return a final time before it was filed electronically or given to the client in paper form for mailing.

Little, Coughlin and their volunteers gave hundreds of hours to this community service. They filed more than 422 returns.

“We saw so many older people who really needed this help,” Little said. “Often, their adult children came in first to make sure it was safe and secure. Once they saw our program work, they made an appointment and came back with their folks.

It was very important to her that older people and those with disabilities felt safe coming and going from the center. After dark, volunteers often walked clients to their cars as an added safety precaution.

Naturally, Little was excited about this project and the commitment and quality of her volunteers. She talked to her mother a lot about how things were going and, more than once, suggested she give it a try.

But Myrtle Lorenzo, who’d used a CPA in Marysville for years, was reluctant to change. Still, if her daughter was devoting so much time and energy to this tax aide center, she decided it must be a good thing, so she made an appointment.

Lorenzo arrived at the Rainier Building on Tower Street assuming her daughter would take care of her.

Surprise! Little was so confident in her team, she sent her mother to the workstation of another volunteer.

“Why are you doing this?” Mom asked.

“Trust Janice,” Little replied, “she does good work.”

The service was excellent and the staff both courteous and efficient, Myrtle Lorenzo told me recently. “They were very professional, and I didn’t have to pay a cent.” Like many who came, she was surprised that the service was free to all and no donations were requested.

This winter, Little, Coughlin and their team of more than 22 volunteers are already hard at work getting ready for tax season. Clients are expected to make an appointment (425-388-9565) and arrive on time. They are expected to bring their personal records. All the necessary forms will be provided.

Tax-aide volunteers will assist in the preparation of basic tax forms for personal returns. Tax clinics are held from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays from Feb. 2 to April 15.

However, they are not set up to assist business owners, people with more complex returns that require several schedules, or self-employed folks such as commercial fishermen and farmers.

At least this year Laura Little won’t need to coax a certain senior lady from Everett to make an appointment to get her taxes done.

Linda Bryant Smith writes about life as a senior citizen and the issues that concern, annoy and often irritate the heck out of her now that she lives in a world where nothing is ever truly fixed but her income. You can e-mail her at ljbryantsmith@yahoo.com.

Tax clinics

AARP Tax-Aide is the largest, volunteer-run tax preparation service in the country. More than 32,000 volunteers are involved nationally providing free income tax assistance to millions of low- and middle-income taxpayers with special attention to folks 60 and older.

In addition to the tax clinic at Everett Community College there are several other locations where this free service will be available starting Feb. 1. To find one near your home, call 211 the county’s information and assistance line. To make an appointment for tax aide at Everett Community College, call Laura Little at 425-388-9565.

Volunteers are trained to help people prepare a basic tax return using any of these forms: 1040 (schedules A, B, C-EZ and D); 1040A (schedules 1, 2, and 3), schedule EIC, child tax credit, education credits and child-care credits.