Volunteering as a Tax Preparer Opened My Eyes to the Financial Realities Many Face

Tax time, much like jury duty, brings us all together in a rather unusual way. Rich and poor, young and old, strangers find themselves bonding with other strangers over tax time, whether it is in panicking over the April deadline, in expressing frustration or confusion over tax law, or in bemoaning the final results of our own tax preparation.

I used to join in the begrudging complaints of my fellow taxpayers and drag my feet in doing my taxes. That is, until this tax year, when I decided to volunteer with VITA. VITA, or Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, is a program sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that offers free income tax preparation to low- to moderate-income families who make $54,000 a year or less. It would not surprise me if you are not familiar with this program. Personally, I had never heard of VITA until this year, when I was searching for a volunteer opportunity in my area. After 2 months of training, passing my Advanced Certification for Tax Preparation test, 4 months of preparing over 25 tax returns for others, and the conclusion of the 2016 tax year, I find myself compelled to write to you about my experience as a VITA volunteer. Three clients I helped really stood out to me, and I would like to share their stories with you.

One of the clients I prepared income taxes for this year was a woman who had an income of only $9,000 for all of 2016. She was in her 50s and worked at a fast food chain. Her job does not offer her a retirement plan (even if she could afford to contribute, which she cannot). Her job does not offer her full-time hours or healthcare options. Because of a work-related injury, she is currently unable to work and has been on disability for several months. She also has full Medi-Cal benefits and qualifies for food stamps because of her low income. She expressed to me how worried she is over the current political climate. Both her and I recognized that she and others in her situation have everything to lose if the important safety net programs that are keeping her afloat lose their funding. Even with these programs in place, I honestly have no idea how this woman is making ends meet. I already think her situation is dire. Both she and I are afraid for her if our state and our country elect to roll back the expansion of Medicaid or de-fund other safety net programs like the food stamps program that allows her to afford to eat.

Another client I assisted was a young woman in her 20s. She is working 2 full-time jobs caring for the elderly while trying to pay for and attend college. She scales the number of units and classes she signs up for every semester to whatever she can afford. Because the cost of each unit at the public university she attends is so expensive, she often is only able to take a class or two per semester. She cannot afford to do more without taking on more and more student debt. To add to that, one of her elderly clients passed away last year, making her unable to get enough work hours through her main job to qualify for health insurance through her employer. She made too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal benefits and missed the deadline to enroll in Covered California, so she was uninsured when I prepared her tax return. When I had to break the news to her that she owed $500 to the IRS this year, she did all she could to fight back her tears. She told me she did not have the money and would need to set up a payment plan with the IRS. Although her situation was less dire than many others I had helped, it made me wonder. What are we teaching our young people? This woman is doing everything she can to pursue work that makes our community better and gives back to our elders. And yet, because the price of education is too high, she finds herself falling further and further into debt, despite all her best efforts. It would not be at all surprising if she later gives up on finishing her degree and pursuing her passion for caring for the elderly because the pursuit had become financially unbearable. What a loss for us all if this happens.

The third client that stood out to me is a couple in their 50s and 60s. The wife works 3 jobs as a medical technician and special needs teacher, making decent money. The husband is currently unable to work. She and her husband would like to retire in 5 years. However, they do not have any retirement savings. She just got access to a 401(k) through a new teaching job, but has so far only contributed $150. While I encouraged her and her husband to apply their tax refund toward retirement savings, the reality that I knew while helping them is that she and her husband will likely never retire. They will be working until they literally cannot work anymore. The income they currently make — and would make with Social Security Benefits — barely covers the cost of their rent. However much they are able to save from their $40,000 per year salary, it will not be enough to build a nest egg for when they will need it in the next few years, and their hard work will never be rewarded with retirement.

To introduce myself: by profession, I am a pharmacist. I have spent 5+ years working in retail pharmacy and interacting with the general public in several counties in northern and southern California. I even spent a few months in El Paso, TX, at a federally qualified health center in the poorest zip code in the United States. I have encountered everyone from the very rich to the very poor in my profession. Much like taxes, our healthcare system brings us all together in unexpected ways. Until my experience with VITA, I thought I had seen the whole gamut of people and understood the struggles of the socioeconomically disadvantaged from my work as a pharmacist.

Only now, however, after my experience of volunteering with VITA, do I realize that I merely got a glimpse of the magnitude of the struggles that poor communities face every day and how our current financial and social systems magnify the cards that are already stacked against them. It is too easy for those of us who are not disadvantaged to get wrapped up in the day-to-day inconveniences of our own privileged lives and forget the real struggles that communities all around us are coping with day in and day out.

If I am completely honest, much of where I am today is due to chance and circumstance. Sure, I studied hard through college and graduate school, but I also had the socioeconomic resources to do so. My parents supported me financially up until I finished graduate school and was able to find full-time work. I am able to afford my own apartment in a safe neighborhood in the Bay Area, where rising housing costs continue to drive people to move to more affordable locations. I have a job that provides me with health insurance and a 401(k). I earn a paycheck that is large enough to allow me to go on vacation every year, save toward an emergency fund, and even save for retirement. I would imagine that those reading this are lucky enough to enjoy the same financial stability that I enjoy — the ability to travel, go on vacation, occasionally splurge on a nice dinner or on nice clothes, and the ability to look forward to eventual retirement and a life free from doing others’ work.

I am writing this today because these are the privileges that you and I are lucky enough to enjoy. As I have experienced while preparing others’ taxes with VITA this year, many, many people in our communities do not have access to these same privileges — because of chance, circumstance, and the way in which our institutions are structured to continually reward the wealthy while cutting the funding of important safety net programs that are critical to the well-being of those living at or below the federal and state poverty level. Some examples of these critical safety net programs include: Medi-Cal, the Affordable Care Act, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children program), Social Security, CalFresh (food stamps), and educational grants. Without continuing to support government safety net programs that provide services ranging from childcare to education to health insurance to food stamps and other forms of financial assistance, disadvantaged communities will never have access to the same privileges that you and I are able to enjoy. Our states and nation as a whole are only as strong as the communities that form them.

I am writing this today as a plea to use your vote and your voice in your local communities to fight to continue to fund the important social and economic safety net programs that are constantly in jeopardy of being defunded, even as many of these programs are already under-funded.

I am writing this today because I have the resources to sit down and write this letter, because I make enough income to spend my weekends not working, and because I have had unique perspectives as both a healthcare provider and a tax preparer in the community.

I am writing this today because I hope to leverage the resources that chance and circumstance have blessed me with to inspire others to rally in support of the vital safety net programs that allow the individuals whose tax returns I prepared this year to have a chance at the same financial stability that you and I both enjoy.

I am writing this today because the people I helped through VITA, who are barely making ends meet, likely paid more taxes for 2016 than our current President.

I am writing this today because, in our nation of growing income inequality, socioeconomically disadvantaged communities have fewer and fewer resources allocated to advocating for their needs.

I am writing this today because money talks and the poor have a quiet voice in our country.

I am this today because I have seen firsthand the types of financial struggles that these communities are facing, and I am hoping that my letter does something to help save the safety net programs that are a lifeline for so many.

I am writing this today because not all that much separates you and me from those who need safety net programs. We are each only one diagnosis, accident, injury, layoff, or twist of fate away from needing the safety net’s support.

I am writing this today because preserving our federal and state safety net programs benefits us all. The safety net is there to protect whomever may need it whenever they may need it. We have to maintain and support the safety net if we want it to be there. No safety net protects no one.

I am writing this today because I wanted to tell you the stories of the clients I have had the privilege to serve as a VITA volunteer. In allowing me to prepare their tax returns, these individuals granted me a glimpse into their lives and their everyday struggles.

I am writing this today because I believe their stories should be the loudest voice of all in driving change.

Personally, I am so thankful that I am lucky to be in the situation I find myself in today: young, with insurance, without chronic medical conditions, able to work, with a full-time job, able to save for retirement and investments, with the hope of eventually owning a home. I am able to afford groceries where it won’t put me out financially to cook with new or exotic ingredients, and I am able to save for an emergency fund so I won’t be in debt or bankrupted if I happen to get in a car accident or be hospitalized. However, I know that not much is separating me from the clients I have met during my time volunteering with VITA. The reality is this: The main thing that makes my situation different from the situations of the people I have helped as a volunteer tax preparer is pure chance and the opportunities and resources that I, by chance, have had access to throughout my life. It could always go the other way, and one day I may find myself walking in their shoes.

This is why I am taking the time to write this letter. It is so important for those of us who have been blessed by chance, access, and opportunity to stand up and speak up to help those who have not had the same luck, fortune, and opportunities in life that we have had.

This is why we must continue to champion safety net programs like food stamps, affordable health care, affordable public education, and affordable childcare programs. All of us need these safety nets to be mended, repaired, and maintained, as life can deal any one of us a crappy hand at any time, regardless of what our current tax bracket may be.

This is why I am writing this letter and why I am hoping you will read it. Maybe it will make a difference. Maybe I am naïve and no one will read it or care. But at least I have tried. On behalf of all of those who I have encountered in my profession and in my volunteer work, it is my duty — and our duty — to advocate for and preserve the safety net programs that help those in need who often do not have a voice that is loud enough for the privileged among us to hear.