Pandemic or Not, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Must Go On!

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night can keep U.S. postal workers from delivering the mail – and the same thing might be said for AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers, who found a way to help their mostly older, low-income taxpayers prepare and file their tax returns despite the constraints of a global pandemic last spring. 

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is the nation’s largest free, volunteer-based tax assistance and preparation program. Each year, 36,000 volunteers in nearly 5,000 communities around the country help prepare and file tax returns for taxpayers.   

Until last March. 

When the pandemic hit, every AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site in South Carolina was suspended while the Foundation determined how to resume service safely. Although Augusta Road UMC-based volunteers could no longer provide service in person, none of them wanted to stop helping.   

"Most people are stunned, overwhelmed and flummoxed by their tax returns."

As an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteer for the last three years, Denise knows how important this program is. “Most people are stunned, overwhelmed and flummoxed by their tax returns. They are just grateful for the help,” she says. 

“A lot of folks did not grow up with computers,” Denise continued. “Many did not use them in their jobs. Maybe it’s because they worked in the mills that closed in the 1970’s and 1980’s. People have a lot of trust in AARP Foundation’s program. They are pleased to know the training and structure are there.”

So, when it was decided last June that the Augusta Road UMC Tax Aide site would be the only one in South Carolina permitted to reopen, Denise and her fellow volunteers knew they had to make things work in the physically-distanced environment of the pandemic. And they did.

"If you get the same person from year to year, it’s kind of like a friendship. It builds community..."

And the results back that up. Between June 15 and July 1, 2020, the Tax-Aide Augusta Road UMC site prepared some 150 returns, compared to a typical year where they help about 200 taxpayers.  

Denise says that volunteering with Tax-Aide is a job “you couldn’t pay me to do, but I do it because I think it’s worthwhile. If you get the same person from year to year, it’s kind of like a friendship. It builds community, not one bounded by a highway, but bounded by trust and need and caring.” 

To learn about volunteering with Tax-Aide, visit aarpfoundation.org/taxaide or call 1-888-OUR-AARP (1-888-687-2277). AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offered in coordination with the IRS.

Taxpayers do not need to be a member of AARP or a retiree to use Tax-Aide or volunteer with the program.