Since the end of January, four volunteers with AARP have spent Thursday mornings and afternoons preparing basic income tax returns at the Barton County Courthouse. Demand for this free service is growing, said Kathy Ahlvers, who leads the Great Bend team. But for every person who is served, several others must be turned away.
Appointments are scheduled by the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program/Volunteers in Action starting in January. But, according to Volunteer Coordinator Linn Hogg, the number of openings were quickly filled. The volunteers will work through April 17.
“We’ve gotten lots of phone calls,” Hogg said. “Our job is to be the scheduling agency for them. All spots are full and we have a waiting list.”
“We could use 20 more people,” said Donna Gales, who greets people as they enter the makeshift office on the first floor of the courthouse. Donna is also a volunteer, along with her husband Lenny, who does the tax returns. Other returns are prepared by Kathy Ahlvers and her husband Richard, and Trella Berscheidt.
The free tax assistance isn’t just for senior citizens and AARP members. It is intended for taxpayers with low- and middle- income, with special attention to those age 60 and older.
The Ahlverses are former residents who returned to Great Bend in 1998, and began volunteering their services as tax preparers the following year. At that time, all of the returns were paper files. Although computers have simplified some of the work, the tax returns have become more complex over the years, Kathy said. Each volunteer is required to attend three to five days of training every year, learning tax codes, the AARP software and rules for customer service, including confidentiality.
Some central Kansas communities no longer offer the service, she said. The problem is finding qualified volunteers. In towns that only had one volunteer, the service was discontinued because each return is double checked by a second volunteer. Other AARP tax preparation sites are located in Sterling, Hutchinson and WaKeeney.