AARP Tax Aides Volunteer

[jazz4cash]

I am curious to know how the AARP tax prep assistance is supported financially? Are they recipient of a govt contract or do they fund it from donations, fees, dues or ? I’m not looking for speculation or agenda driven responses. It seems several have 1st hand experience with the service and may know the answer

 

[SecondCor521]

I am curious to know how the AARP tax prep assistance is supported financially? Are they recipient of a govt contract or do they fund it from donations, fees, dues or ? I’m not looking for speculation or agenda driven responses. It seems several have 1st hand experience with the service and may know the answer

It's funded by grants from the AARP Foundation and the IRS.

There are no fees, dues, or anything from the people whose taxes are prepared. The vast majority of the staff are volunteers - I think they said there are 12 paid people out of several thousand. The services are provided in churches, libraries, and other similar free locations.

 

[jazz4cash]

It's funded by grants from the AARP Foundation and the IRS.



There are no fees, dues, or anything from the people whose taxes are prepared. The vast majority of the staff are volunteers - I think they said there are 12 paid people out of several thousand. The services are provided in churches, libraries, and other similar free locations.

Thanks. I understood the services were free to the client. I was referring to membership dues/fees.

 

[Souschef]

Thanks. I understood the services were free to the client. I was referring to membership dues/fees.

There are no fees or dues. You need not belong to AARP. These people are volunteers who want to give back to the community.

 

[kaneohe]

I have been doing it for at least 12 yrs. It may have been said before but just in case.........there are 2 programs......TCE (targeted to the elderly tho others are not rejected if they come) and VITA which is targeted to others (I assume less elderly and perhaps a more diverse population).

I have only done TCE but I have this perception of VITA (perhaps true or perhaps not) as more diverse and perhaps consequently more difficult. This idea comes from the test questions that we have to pass every year. We used to have to pass both the Basic and Advanced Sections. The Basic Section always had these complex family situations that I , and I found out later, others found quite challenging. I ended up doing the advanced test first to gain confidence and then went back to do the Basic test. Fortunately in recent years we only have to pass the advanced test.

Like all situations, you are most affected by the micro-environment around you. I have been fortunate to have had one Local Coordinator for most of the 12 yrs and she was very supportive and everyone appreciated her. I also had wonderful coworkers who supported each other. So no complaints there. As mentioned by others, the taxpayers we see were very appreciative of our efforts and ,since we are not allowed to accept cash, they buried us in other stuff.........candies/cookies/fruit/etc.

Most of the work is fairly routine although in the early years, I had the impression that something new happened each day. Every once in a while you get to have a significant effect............like when the couple presented me with one SS tax form and when I asked for the other, they told me that the wife didn't get SS because she never worked. Homework assignment: find out about spousal SS.......so they were happy and excited to get some back pay.

The training materials are quite good esp. the 4012 so you are able to handle situations that are not your every day experience with the help of those resources. You also gain an appreciation of what it takes to be able to create those flow/decision charts. The creator must understand the material well to be able to create a lean pithy summary (as opposed to writing lots of wordy lengthy pages when you don't understand things well).

I would encourage OP to keep an open mind as different folks' experiences may have been different............like reading a Yelp review of a restaurant w/ diverse opinions. Perhaps I have been lucky but I consider the Tax-Aide experience to be most rewarding.

 

[SevenUp]

Here's another vote in favor of participating, for pretty much the same reasons others have mentioned: it's a much appreciated service that primarily serves those who might have some difficulty navigating the federal and state tax system.

Median AGI for 1000+ clients where I've participated runs around $12K. At that level most SS benefits aren't taxed so actual income is higher, but certainly not "high". Maybe 2% had AGI>$70K.

The whole thing is apolitical, so don't participate because you like AARP's lobbying and don't not participate because you don't like AARP's lobbying.

 

[onabreak]

I was a volunteer for the first time last year. I found the training was good in our area. For me, the state taxes where actually the most challenging and most of the training was focused on federal. My state (MA) has some senior tax breaks and doesn’t tax some government pensions, that was area that needed self study. I found it really rewarding. The other volunteers in my site had at least 10 years experience and were very helpful.

I was in a senior center so all our clients were older so that did limit some of the scenarios. With maybe 2 exceptions of higher income folks with complex investments, most became routine by April. There is more demand in our area than volunteers, I had a lot of folks that paid HRBlock the prior year because they couldn’t get an appointment for a simple return that took maybe 45 min

I’m back to training next week.

One thing I really liked was the seasonal nature of it. I feel good about giving back to my community, but am only committing to a schedule for one quarter of the year.

 

[retiredunder50]

This is my 7th year. I really enjoy giving back to community especially to those who obviously can not afford a professional preparer's fee. They do appreciate our service. It's a joy to alert seniors and lower income folks to programs & benefits they are eligible for due to their personal circumstances.

My only real complaint about the whole program is that AARP has not set any income limits and we have more than our share of 6 figure income folks draining precious time away from those who really need this service. It seems like every other organization that prepares taxes for free sets limits. We started to gently browbeat the super high earners by emphasizing the program's real target audience. Thankfully, we are also able to pull the out-of-scope card on some of those more complex returns.

Volunteering for this keeps your mind active, keeps you sharp on the tax code & changes, provides for an opportunity to interface regularly with a great team of volunteers and members of the local community, provides a sense of satisfaction in helping others, and reminds you to count your blessings.

 

[SevenUp]

We started to gently browbeat the super high earners by emphasizing the program's real target audience. Thankfully, we are also able to pull the out-of-scope card on some of those more complex returns.

Agreed!

 

[friar1610]

I recently got an email from the coordinator for my town following my filling out an expression of interest form on the IRS web site. In that email she said that the formal training had already been conducted (in November) but that there are self-study materials available. I've not yet made phone contact with her but hope to soon. I feel like I'm fairly conversant with taxes although I'm not a CPA or anything like that. I'd been hoping to take the week of training.

UPDATE: After looking at the amount of self-study material, I decided that I would not have the tine to do it justice between now and the tine volunteers have to "go live" with tax prep. (I also gave a trip planned during what would be my prep time.) I asked the folks to make sure I'm only their email list for next year so I can take the class.)