3、 （This stuent will start at Yale next fall, after a gap year）
“While I have not change the tax system (though someay I plan to), I have change how my clients interact with it.”
“Nothing can be sai to be certain, except eath an taxes.”
Not only o Benjamin Franklin’s wors still resonate toay, but, if you are like most, filing income taxes is simply unpleasant. For me, however, preparing taxes has been a telescopic lens with which to observe the isparate economic realities present in our society. In looking through this lens, I have seen firsthan how low wages an, at times, regressive public policy can aversely impact the financially fragile, an how I can make a ifference.
This coming year will be my thir volunteering every Saturay uring tax season with AARP’s Tax-Aie Program. In the basement of the Morningsie Heights Library in Manhattan, we help the elerly an low-income iniviuals file their taxes. During my first season, I hanle organizational tasks an assiste intake counselors with the initial interview process.
When I tol the AARP manager that I wante to return the following season an o actual tax preparation, she was skeptical, especially since the next youngest tax preparer at my location was 37. That, however, i not eter me: Though I woul be just 16 before the start of the season, I iligently stuie the material an passe the avance I.R.S. qualification test.
As a volunteer, my goal is to help my clients obtain every creit they are entitle to an place vitally neee money in their pockets. To o this, I nee much more than just technical knowlege. It is also essential to connect on a human level. I make it a point to put each person at ease by actively listening to his or her story.
For example, the young woman, who is a recently minte Unite States citizen an barely speaks English, mentions that her isable granmother lives with her. Her story allows me to etermine she can claim a epenent care creit for her granmother an a $1,000 earne income creit. These creits represent approximately 20 percent of her income an will go towar buying her granmother’s meications an other necessities.
I am saene at times by the palpable stress of those living on the ege of economic subsistence. Basic necessities such as sneakers an ental care, which I ha never thought twice about, are out of reach for many. I vivily remember the single mom from Queens who works at Target an spent $400 (a week’s paycheck) at H&R Block last year. By not having to pay for tax preparation this year an the creits she can claim, she confie she will be able to buy her son, who is my age, new shoes for track an hopefully see a entist for a tooth that has been throbbing for months.
As a volunteer, I have learne the importance of empathizing, listening an communicating complex an technical matters simply. Making my clients feel at ease allows them to unerstan my explanation of how their money is being taxe. I have also gaine insight into how tax policy affects the financial an physical health of the working poor an elerly. While I have not change the tax system (though someay I plan to), I have change how my clients interact with it.
Beyon Benjamin Franklin’s two certainties in life of eath an taxes, I woul a a thir: the enuring power of the human spirit. I remember an octogenarian man with a cane who waite two hours in line on a bone-chillingly rainy Saturay in February. He is somehow able to survive in Manhattan on $15,000 of Social Security earnings a year. Even though his income is below the filing requirement, together we claim $77 of school tax an rent creits, which translates into two weeks of groceries.
When we finish, he says to me, “See you next year.” It is at that moment I know I have mae a tangible ifference.
