Valley 'tax-angel' volunteers make taxes less taxing

MAT-SU - There exists a strange breed of people who actually enjoy preparing taxes.

"Half an hour to an hour, and we've got it done," breezed Wally Riehle.

Riehle coordinates the Mat-Su volunteer tax counselors for the AARP's Tax-Aide Program, part of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service-sponsored Tax Counseling for the Elderly program.

Most of the eight Valley volunteers are retired. They're not accountants, but just people who are "good with numbers," according to third-year volunteer Vicki Geronimi, who used to help her friends and roommates with their taxes.

Riehle's been doing work for 32 years, having examined and tweaked people's finances for supervised credit through the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the last 15 years or so.

Each year, the volunteers are trained, tested and certified in a week-long tax-preparing program in Anchorage.

Then they take on finances not only of the elderly, but of single parents and anyone else struggling with low-to-middle income-tax returns.

They're not there to train people how to prepare taxes, although Geronimi invites her clients to sit next to her and watch the computer screen. This isn't the old paper system, after all. TCE volunteers help their clients file taxes electronically, which the Internal Revenue Service pushes.

The agency has been trying to make filing taxes more palatable to Americans.

"Filling Your Taxes Was Never Easier!" the IRS Web site reads. "It's as easy as 1-2-3!"

Plus, those who e-file receive their returns much sooner, within weeks instead of months.

Some seniors are more reluctant, but most people prefer it.

"People like to have their money right away," Geronimi said.

IRS spokesperson Judy Monahan said that of the 130 million individual tax returns filed last year, 61 million were filed electronically, or around 47 percent. Alaska's right around there, around 149,000 out of 339,000 individual returns were e-filed.

It may be easier than ever, but we're still intimidated.

"A lot of people just plain don't even like to look at it," Geronimi said.

As if the forms weren't confusing enough, imagine trying to read them with limited English. Riehle said that in Wasilla last Wednesday, of the 15 people who showed up looking for help, five were Russian speakers needing translators.

"That's fairly typical for Wasilla," he said.

Russian heads of household often bring a teen-ager, who will sit between parents and tax preparer, translating.

"It's a challenge at times," Riehle said. None of the current volunteers speak Russian, although he has one prospective Russian-speaking volunteer in training.

Large families are another challenge. Alaska Permanent Fund dividends add paperwork, since even the youngest dependents are receiving money that's accountable to the IRS.

"With the senior population, it goes much quicker," he said.

Come in bearing identification, last year's tax returns, your W-2 and 1099 forms, and you'll likely be done within an hour.

For some, there's even more incentive: free money from the federal government. Both Geronimi and Riehle named the Earned Income Tax Credit as the best part

of volunteering.

It's a realization like "'Oh my god, I got that lady $5,000 back on her taxes,'" that makes counseling fun, Riehle said.

Riehle remembers a single father who was raising his two young children in "pretty primitive conditions." His work was minimal enough, Riehle said, that he didn't have to file. But a bookkeeper at a construction company he moonlighted for suggested he could benefit from filing, and sent him to TCE counselors. Riehle helped him put together taxes for the last four years.

"When he got done, he had $8,000 coming from the federal government," Riehle said. It went to installing an indoor bathroom and running water, significantly raising the family's standard of living.

A grandmother who'd ended up with kids after the death of their parents, couldn't contain herself when Riehle showed her how much she was getting in child tax credit.

"She let out a scream, a yell, and the grandkids came running - 'What's wrong, grandma, what's wrong?'" Riehle said.

The TCE program assists anyone with an income up to about $50,000, who is filing simple returns. A poster at each site helps explain who is eligible. If a return is likely to be complicated, the volunteers will suggest a paid professional preparer.

The IRS Web site says there are more than 9,000 counseling sites throughout the country during tax season.

Last year, at the TCE program's four Valley sites, volunteers helped 400 filers, whether single owners or households, and filed around 350 federal returns.

No big deal, said Riehle, who spends about 20 hours a week on the program.

"Oh, [the forms are] just a mystery to them, and I just do it, and they come out on Cloud 9 a lot of times."