We are experiencing high tax volume...

Today was just further proof that tax season is a crazy time.

This morning Alex and I made the drive to Dayton to help out at a tax clinic hosted by HarvestCorps members at Dayton Urban Ministry. We arrived a little early and journeyed into the computer lab to get set up. We knew that the agency only had two trained counselors, so chances were we would be stepping in to see the occasional client. After dropping our stuff, we logged onto the OBB website and did a quick test to find out which computers were connected to printers. We were ready.

Or so we thought.

When the clinic began at 10 a.m., there were about 7 people already there, waiting for their taxes to be done. Some people had appointments but most did not, and since there were only 4 counselors on hand (including us), people were going to have to wait.

And they certainly did wait. Due to computer and space issues, only 3 of us were able to work at a time. Even with just 3 of us online, the network couldn't handle the demand and took an average of 1-2 minutes to load each page. I called the Benefit Bank help desk to see if the problem was on their end, but alas, it was not. Eventually, people grew tired of waiting and scheduled an appointment to come back tomorrow or Friday. Some people just left all together.

But we were still able to help quite a few people during the clinic. My first client was a veteran and a former deputy sheriff who started collecting disability payments after being stabbed in the line of duty a few years ago. He was currently caring for his nephew and daughter, and he came prepared with all of his forms. We worked as quickly as we could and discovered he could anticipate a $2200 refund. He was pleasantly surprised!

But then we hit some snags. He had brought all of his forms with him except for one--his 1040 from 2008 which would include his AGI from 2008. Without that number, we couldn't e-file. So we waited while he called the IRS and sat on hold for 15 minutes before we could e-file his return. This is my fault, really. If I had asked him if he had his 2008 tax return or AGI when we first got started, we could have avoided this delay. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to do the thing I tell all of our counselors to do, so we had to wait. Furthermore, my computer apparently lacked Adobe software, so I had to wait 20 minutes for it to download before I could print any tax forms for the man's records. Finally, about 2 hours after we started, we filed his return.

My next client was a woman in her late forties who had collected unemployment all year. She wasn't able to find any work, so her only form was a 1099-G. Lucky for me, she also had brought her 2008 tax return so we could quickly access her 2008 AGI. As I glanced through her records, I noticed she had received a refund last year of over $6,000. But this year, because she wasn't working, she couldn't claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. Some of her kids had also outgrown the child tax credits and additional child tax credits so she wasn't able to claim those. And she wasn't able to claim another child as her dependent because the girl had turned 19 during the tax year and wasn't a full time student.

Fortunately, she had had federal taxes withheld from her unemployment checks, so she didn't owe anything, but she also will only get about $1000 back in her refund this year. When I told her this, she thought I had made a mistake, so we went back through her entire return to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Finally, I just had to explain why she wasn't getting as many credits this year, including the EITC. Her response was: "But it's not my fault I couldn't find work!"

And the only thing I could say was, "I know, it isn't fair, and I'm sorry your refund isn't as high as it was last year. I hope 2010 is better for you."

And you know what? That's a really crummy feeling to send someone away so disappointed. She had waited for 2 hours anticipating a big refund--she had already figured out what she would do with the money. I really hope that unemployment rolls go down this year and people can find work so that they can claim those EITC credits next year!