NYer Of The Week: Volunteer Tax Preparer Helps Thousands Of Locals File Taxes
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The latest New Yorker of the Week leads a group that helps thousands of city residents meet the all-important tax deadline. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report. At Brooklyn Workforce Innovation, a community resource center in Park Slope, Godwin Iwuchukwu fumbles through his receipts trying to organize his finances for his 2009 tax return. Fortunately, Kelly Dillon is on hand to guide him through the sometimes overwhelming process.
"I think people get tense and stressed about tax preparation and getting their taxes done, so we try to alleviate the stress and they’re able to get them done for free," says Dillon.
Seven years ago, Dillon started Ariva Inc., a free tax preparation organization for low-income New Yorkers. Other companies can charge up to $400.
"We feel it’s best to give the tax clients their entire refund versus having to pay the fees and typically sometimes the fees can be excessive," says Dillon.
"They almost make me empowered to the point where I can almost do it myself. I have never been taught so much about my taxes and also how to do my taxes," says Iwuchukwu.
Working with 12 paid staffers, and 150 volunteers, Dillon travels to five sites around the city. This year, Ariva estimates it will do more than 7,000 tax returns citywide, including nearly 600 tax returns at Brooklyn Workforce Innovation.
Dillon spends most of her time volunteering at Ariva's drop-in center in the Bronx. During the day, she works at CheckSprings Bank, which helps support her organization.
"Kelly’s great. We get a lot of people with situations, maybe a tax return is being taken for a past debt that they didn’t know that they had, and she handles these things very, very well," says Amanda Frick of Brooklyn Workforce Innovation.
Many of Dillon's volunteers are fluent in Spanish, and she makes sure her clients know what other benefits might be available.
"To screen for food stamps and health insurance and that kind of thing, to try to connect people to maybe other benefits that they’re not accessing from the system," says Dillon.
So, for helping people crunch their numbers before the daunting tax deadline, Kelly Dillon is the latest New Yorker of the Week.
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