An increased number of volunteers helping people to file simple income tax returns will substantially help facilitate this year’s effort to process the paperwork, said Greenwood Neighbourhood Place Society’s community resources coordinator.
Sari Werezak said the annual Community Volunteer Income Tax Program starts on March 4 and will have clinics running Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. throughout the course of two months. Ten volunteers are helping out, up from seven in 2018.
That includes some members of the community who have been involved in the program for many years as well as some new faces who wanted to help out, she said.
“They have to go through screening,” she said, adding, “There’s a process for being approved with the Canada Revenue Agency.”
Since they handle sensitive personal information, volunteers also sign an oath of confidentiality through the society, she said.
A new auto-fill pilot program will allow volunteers who registered for the option with CPRA to automatically populate tax forms in the program, similar to how accounting firms have access to figures from the government, she said.
“So if someone comes in missing a slip — like a benefit or T slip — some of the volunteers will have the auto-fill feature and be able to access those amounts and incomes without actually having the slip in hand,” she said. The approach, she said, will drastically alleviate the need to sit on hold while waiting on the phone for a government official to dig up those details.
The volunteer approval process takes about 30 days, so while too late for this tax season, people who want to get involved can certainly throw their names in the hat next year, she said.
“I usually contact all of my volunteers from the previous year in January and anyone new can come in and see if it’s something they’re interested in.”
Jean Hague, who has been lending a hand for 10 years, has been the longest standing volunteer, said Werezak.
“They find it rewarding,” she said, adding, “They enjoy the social aspect.”
Some of the people seeking help to process their tax returns also seem to appreciate the opportunity to visit with the volunteers, she said.
The program’s success can also be gauged by the growing number of residents who come to have their taxes processed, she said, adding there have been annual increases for years.
In 2014, there were 160 people who sought help filing their 2013 returns. That number jumped to 200 in 2015 and has since continued going up, reaching roughly 280 last year, she said, hoping this tax season sets a new milestone of 300.
The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program is a collaborative effort between community organizations such as GNP and the Canada Revenue Agency. But volunteers are not representatives or employees of the agency, she said.
“They supply us with training if needed,” she said, adding support is also available for volunteers who might have questions.
“They’re very, very helpful,” she said about the agency.
Also, courtesy of Sundre’s reputation as a “volunteer capital,” Werezak said she does not anticipate the program ending any time in the near future.
“The need is obviously there,” she said.
The program, which is not available everywhere, is very valuable to the community. Some municipalities with much larger populations have fewer volunteers, resulting in more limited opportunities for clinics, she said.
“We’re running for two months,” she said.
“We are fortunate.”
Completing taxes can be intimidating for some people at the best of times, but the logistics and cost of travelling to have returns processed out of town can also be stressful, she said.
“Everything else is going up and up and up. You don’t get much for free anymore,” she said, adding many incomes do not match or reflect the increases on just about everything else.
The thresholds for incomes that qualify for the program have increased this year. The suggested family income guidelines for the 2018 tax season for one person is now $35,000, up from last year’s $30,000. For two people, that figures increases to $45,000, she said.
Additionally, the program does not accommodate complex tax situations, such as self-employment, processing a return for a deceased individual, reporting capital gains or losses, as well as businesses' filings or bankruptcies, she said.
Also, although the new auto-fill feature will speed up the process, residents seeking assistance in filing their taxes through the volunteer program should have all of their necessary T-slips in order, and must also complete paperwork that authorizes volunteers to prepare the returns as well as file them electronically, she said.
On a side note, people should be aware of tax scams. Fraudsters can fake their caller ID as well as solicit legitimate-looking digital correspondence. However, the Canada Revenue Agency will never ask for sensitive information via a random phone call, nor will police ever arrest someone because of overdue taxes, she said.
For more information about this program and others, GNP’s office can be reached at 403-638-1011.
