Tax season is upon us as our W-2s have arrived in the mail.
Fortunately for Rocklanders, there’s a group of volunteers who are willing and ready to help out at various county-wide locations.
AARP Foundation Tax-Aide offers free, individualized tax preparation for low-to moderate-income taxpayers - especially those 60 and older - at nearly 6,000 locations nationwide. In Rockland, you’ll normally find them at a library, but many years ago, Jawonio approached them for assistance.
"They volunteer at libraries for low-income residents and when we saw they were doing this for the libraries, we asked if they could come help out at Jawonio too,” said Isabel Newmeyer, Jawonio’s coordinator of job development. “We find jobs for people with disabilities. We started this program about 15 years ago with volunteers from AARP, who have been trained to do taxes. Our consumers who are working, they come here and get taxes done free of charge.”
The AARP volunteers come for a total of two days to Jawonio Tech and Jawonio’s main building and are able to do about 100-135 tax returns.
“They come one day now and will come back later for a whole day for people who get their W-2s late,” Newmeyer said. “Not all of the volunteers are accountants. They go for training and now some other agencies have picked up on this opportunity too.”
“We go anywhere and help out anyone who gives us free space,” said Al Lannone, one of the Rockland Tax Aides.
Newmeyer works with Jawonio Job Developers Susan Mackay and Katherine Keating.
“We go out to different businesses and help find jobs and give them support and employment,” said Newmeyer.
Mo Judson has been a part of the relationship between Jawonio and the tax aide program since the beginning.
“We found out about it through a contact we had with Jawonio. We thought it was a good idea and we did it,” said Judson. “We are the AARP tax aide program. We have training in January and take an IRS test to become certified. I’m happy to be able to help taxpayers. These folks are so grateful to us and come back every year to see us.”
Tax Aide volunteers helping out in February at Jawonio include:
- Mo Judson
- Sam Warsoff
- Esther Hyman
- Bill Nest
- Al Lannone
The volunteers from the AARP Tax-Aide program will be at various Rockland libraries to assist seniors and low to mid-income individuals with filing their New York State and Federal income tax returns. Here are their schedules at several local libraries. The volunteers will be there every week on the stated days from now through April 15
- New City Library: Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Valley Cottage Library: Fridays from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Pearl River Library: Fridays from 10:30am to 2:30pm
- Nanuet library: Wednesdays from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Nyack Library: Mondays from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
For more locations, visit the AARP website here.
Please bring: PROOF OF IDENTITY; copies of Federal and State returns filed last year; W-2 forms; ALL 1099 forms; dependent care provider information; ALL receipts or cancelled checks for income and property taxes paid and for charitable contributions; social security cards for yourself and your dependents; and any unemployment compensation statements.
For further information call: 1-888-AARP-NOW.
