Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Community members who have filed their federal and state income tax returns in the past through the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs will no longer be able to receive assistance at Northern Maine Community College.
The program offers free tax preparation and electronic filing to low- to moderate-income taxpayers. Tax preparation is done by volunteers who must pass an IRS test before preparing returns. The local partner for IRS in the VITA/TCE program is AARP Tax-Aide. Although affiliated with the AARP Foundation, the AARP Tax-Aide program is open to both taxpayers and volunteers of all ages.
For over 20 years through the program, faculty and students at NMCC have prepared thousands of tax returns for local residents. However, growth in recent years, including record enrollment this academic year, has placed a significant strain on faculty loads and facilities to the extent that NMCC will be unable to offer this program for the upcoming filing season.
“It has been our privilege to provide this service to the residents of Aroostook County and although our students and faculty will miss the interaction we have had with the community, it is in the college’s best interest at this time to use its limited resources to meet the needs of our students,” said NMCC President Timothy Crowley. “We will encourage our students and staff to volunteer with the AARP to help the need for individuals to assist with income tax preparation.”
The University of Maine at Presque Isle has agreed to provide the space, computers and printers for tax preparation for the upcoming tax filing season. Like NMCC, it does not, however, have sufficient faculty to train and work with the students. Therefore, volunteers from the local area are needed to make appointments, greet taxpayers and to prepare tax returns.
“We think we have the key individual for the electronic filing portion of the program, but we’re looking for ‘nuts and bolts’ people for intake of information from people coming in that will affect the accuracy of their returns, and processing W2s and 1099s,” said Lowell Glidden, instructor and district coordinator of the AARP Tax-Aide program. “We’re looking for people that can acquaint themselves with the tax law; not to become experts but to become qualified to ask the right questions and transcribe that information onto the returns.
“I’d like to see 5-6 volunteers,” he said. “I’ve got potentially 3-4 people including a couple students enrolled at UMPI; however, students’ schedules vary and you’re not always able to rely on them for scheduled work. If we have enough people to run three computers instead of two, that would be ideal.”
Glidden said the tax program will likely be held Saturdays from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
“I know that this will probably not alleviate all of the workload that NMCC was doing … they were helping 500 people a year, and we probably will not get that many on Saturdays through the UMPI program, but every bit helps,” he said, noting that a similar program will be held for the first time at the Caribou Recreation Center. “There will be some people who live in the Caribou area that will be obliged to go there.”
An AARP unit out of Millinocket comes to Houlton to help residents process their tax returns, Glidden said.
Although the AARP Tax-Aide program has been offering free income tax preparation for over 40 years, many people still have not heard about the service. Others assume that they are not eligible to take advantage of it.
“They think that they must be AARP members, that they must be over 50, that they must be low income, or that their return is too complex,” said Joan Jagolinzer, state coordinator of the AARP Tax-Aide program. “Generally, these assumptions are wrong. Taxpayers do not have to be AARP members. There are no age limits and no income limits.
“As for complexity, AARP Tax-Aide volunteers are capable of handling nearly all of the types of income that retirees usually have, including wages, interest, dividends, sale of stock, pensions, Social Security, IRA and other pensions distributions,” she said. “Our tax preparers can help with itemized deductions, as well.”
Volunteers receive training from IRS-certified instructors and must pass an open-book IRS test before being permitted to prepare income tax returns as an AARP Tax-Aide counselor. Because tax laws are constantly changing, taking the training and passing the test each year is mandatory.
AARP Tax-Aide volunteers learn all of the special tax situations that apply to both state and federal income tax returns. For example, last year, for the first time, homeowners (who generally do not itemize deductions) were allowed to add up to $500 ($1,000 if married) to their standard deduction for real estate taxes paid. The passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 added many new provisions, including the $250 Economic Recovery Payment and restored some residential energy credits that had previously expired.
Glidden said returns will be prepared at UMP for the 10-week period from Feb. 1-April 15; however, specific days and times will be announced at a later time.
Anyone interested in volunteering with the AARP Tax-Aide program can contact Glidden at 769-7651 or by e-mailing logme@mfx.net.
File photo courtesy of Northern Maine Community College
MATT MORRISON, left, assists a local couple with their taxes while he was a senior in Northern Maine Community College’s accounting information systems program in the spring of 2006. The college offered a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program to the community for many years, but will no longer be able to do so. The University of Maine at Presque Isle, however, has agreed to provide the space, computers and printers for tax preparation for the upcoming tax filing season. Like NMCC, it does not, however, have sufficient faculty to train and work with the students. Therefore, volunteers from the local area are needed to make appointments, greet taxpayers and to prepare tax returns. Anyone interested in volunteering with the AARP Tax-Aide program can contact Lowell Glidden at 769-7651 or by e-mailing logme@mfx.net.
