3/14/2007

Prepare for the taxman cometh
By Dolores E. Pike

Like it or not, that time of year is rolling (some might say "roiling") around again.  In just a month and two days from today the Internal (some might say "Infernal") Revenue Service (IRS) wants your money.  Taxpayers get an extra day this year within which to prepare and file their returns since April 15 falls on a Sunday.

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."
-Mark Twain

Any help that the average taxpayer can get is welcome news.  And even more so when the help is free.  Stepping up to the plate to deliver are the volunteers trained by the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide TCE (Tax Counselors for the Elderly) in conjunction with the IRS.  The acronym TCE can be somewhat misleading because the service, which has been around for 38 years, is free to everyone, not just the elderly, and the foundation is not permitted to discriminate.  The tax counselors will help anyone who seeks assistance in preparing state and federal tax returns and who falls within the bounds of the volunteers' tax training sessions.  Last year some 600 taxpayer forms were completed from the Ocean Pines library base and this year's 24 volunteers expect to exceed that number of returns which are filed electronically.

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing." 
-Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Don and Wanda Olson are the original organizers of the AARP Foundation's program that began in Ocean Pines 12 years ago.  The husband and wife team continue to run the program today, maintaining the records and being the gatekeepers for the IRS laptop computers that are then assigned one to each volunteer.  There are several levels of security needed to initially log on to the computer and then go on to access the data.  At the end of tax season the computers are returned to the drop off site, the Ocean Pines library, where the computers are wiped clean of all data and applications, including Windows.  At this time any hard copies of data gathered by the tax counselors are sent to the IRS.

"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." 
-Will Rogers

Fred Mangels is the district coordinator for the Lower Shore and conducted the requisite training sessions for the volunteers, who must guarantee 40 hours of service.  He is a volunteer himself and works alongside the other counselors in preparing tax returns. He speaks in general terms of some clients who have availed themselves of the free service. Women, recently widowed, bringing in tax records in shopping bags, not knowing, financially, what to do next; young people making good wages but with nothing to show for monies earned; and foreign students working locally.

"We are not just doing the tax returns, but trying to help people understand where they are at (financially).  We cannot give advice but can show people where to look," said Fred who guides people to books that can help provide the kind of financial information they need.

The group of tax counselors that Fred oversees not only work with taxpayers at the Ocean Pines library but are regularly scheduled at the MAC centers in Ocean City, Pocomoke and Salisbury, the Snow Hill library and Gull Creek in Berlin.  The volunteers have even gone to Diakonia to do tax returns. Thus all the equipment needed for the work sessions  including computers, printers, files and miscellaneous paperwork must be moved around from one work site to another by the volunteer tax counselors, many of whom are in their 70s.  Wanda Olson said that next year they want to see clients from the Ocean City MAC center, Gull Creek and Ocean Pines library at one site, the Ocean Pines library.

"There's nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won't cure."
-Dan Bennett

For those who have not completed their state and federal tax forms for 2006 there are still appointment times available with the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide counselors.  Figure on spending an hour and one half in the preparation of your tax forms and bring a copy of last year's tax forms with you to the appointment.  For further information or to schedule an appointment call Don or Wanda Olson at 410-208-1458.

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