Sophomore

This is the second day that I volunteered for the 2009 tax season. I actually was running a little late this day. The site opens at 9, and I didn’t get there until 9:30. The last time I volunteered the site was late in getting set up, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into this day. When I got there, however, the hallway was already filled with patrons waiting to get their taxes done. I walked into the computer room and almost all the computers were filled with volunteers completing returns. I was kind of shocked and surprised to see that many volunteers. I felt guilty that I was late, but after seeing so many people here, I kind of felt that they didn’t really need me.

Barb*, the site coordinator for Madisonville, greeted me and quickly set me up on an open computer. It was pretty crowded around all the computers, with all the volunteers and patrons sitting there. Crowded was a good thing though, because that meant that we had a lot of help and a lot of people getting help.

I have to say that as far as returns go, it was a pretty uneventful day. I think this might be because my skills were getting better, or because most people have the same type of returns. The hard returns are completed by the most advanced volunteers, so I see mostly basic returns anyway. One return stuck out in my head, though. It was actually somewhat of a mistake on my part. An elderly, married couple can in together, but they, for some reason, insisted on filing separately.

For those who don’t know anything about taxes, married filing separately (MFS) is the worst possible status you can file because neither person will get any kind of benefits. This status is basically reserved for people who are still legally married, but don’t actually live together. I had to help a women last year with this status because she was trying to deal with legal issues from her husband, whom she implied was abusive, but she was still legally married so she couldn’t file single status. She didn’t qualify for any credits and got a very low amount back. She may have even had to owe, though I can’t really remember.

So this couple comes in with no marriage problems, but thinks that MFS will help get more back on their return. The screener and I both tried to convince them to file MFJ (Married Filing Jointly) because they would benefit more, but they insisted on doing MFS. I wonder if they truly understood what we were trying to tell them. They did not want to be persuaded by us and this is essentially their tax return, so I can’t force them to file something against their will. They have to answer to the IRS on their taxes, not me.

I filled out the husband’s return and the wife was waiting to be helped by the next available volunteer. The husband was not getting anything back from federal or state at this point. I called Barb over for a quality review and she was kind of shocked that they wanted to file MFS. I told her they insisted on filing this way, but she talked to them and finally convinced to do MFJ and explained that this status would benefit them the most. I should have talked to her in the very beginning before I started working on the husband’s return, because then she had to delete his partial return from the computer. However, I’m glad they listened because they were able to get a fair amount back on their return, which is always better than zero.

Even though we had a full waiting area of patrons, we had many volunteers. We were able to help every person waiting and we got done an hour early, which has never happened to me at this site. I was kind of happy to get done early, and some the volunteers hung out after we were all finished and just chatted for a bit. It was nice to get to know some new people, and see familiar faces from 2 weeks ago.

This week I will be volunteering at a different site other that Madisonville for the first time. It will be interesting to see the differences between sites. Look for my next blog in a week or so.

Name has been changed to protect identity.