Free tax assistance available in Southeast Missouri

Each year, organizations big and small round up volunteers to help low-income, senior and disabled individuals prepare their tax returns. The IRS and AARP provide volunteers in Southeast Missouri, as does the East Missouri Action Agency, which is based in Park Hills, Mo., but has resource offices in Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, Marble Hill, Ironton, Fredericktown, Perryville, Desloge and Cadet, Mo. We talked with Cathy Poole, community resource development specialist for EMAA, about how this year's tax season is shaping up, and how volunteers can get involved.

Business Today: How long has free tax assistance been available at EMAA, and how has it expanded during that time?

Cathy Poole: EMAA has been offering the free service for over 15 years. We prepared over 1,500 federal and state returns and state MO-PTC returns.

BT: Who are the typical people/clients who make use of the service?

Poole: Our typical clients are low-income workers, elderly and disabled. We will prepare federal and state returns for clients who earn under $40,000 for married filing joint and under $29,000 for single filers.

BT: Are you seeing a higher demand for free tax assistance in the past couple years? Why do you think this is?

Poole: Most years we do see an increase each year, but last year we had a small decline due to the late start that IRS as a result of the fiscal cliff issues. But this year all of our offices have been very busy seeing tax clients every day, so we are expecting our numbers to climb back up.

BT: Are taxes also becoming more complicated with all the changes in the economy, Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and so on?

Poole: They are getting more complicated, but fortunately our agency has employed Certified Application Counselors to help folks with the Affordable Care Act. So we can help them with their taxes and with the new health care requirements.

BT: How are you finding the volunteers, and training them, in order to meet the demand for free tax assistance?

Poole: We advertise all year long in our offices and at different agencies in the counties. Also, IRS runs an ad in all the local newspapers in November. Then in January we have a weeklong training provided by IRS. Once the training is completed, each volunteer must take a test online and pass with at least an 80 percent before they can prepare any taxes for clients. We have some that just pass at the basic level, but we also have many that pass at the advanced level.

BT: Are you still looking for volunteers? How can people help?

Poole: We are always looking for volunteers. If someone wants to come in and help, they can still take the online training and then test, or they can even just come in to help answer the phones, make copies, file, etc. Plus, we are always looking for office volunteers all year to help. With the drastic budget cuts a couple of years ago, our office staffs have been cut down to only one or two people in the offices, so volunteers are always greatly appreciated throughout the year.