Accountants Offer Free Online And Telephone Tax Clinics For Low-Income Earners
ST. ANDREWS – Anne Jewett, a chartered professional accountant (CPA) based in St. Andrews, is retired. She’s now using her time to help low-income New Brunswickers file their tax returns online or over the phone, for free.
“People need the help and it’s very easy for me,” said Jewett.
“I just hope people take more advantage of it because the program is there and the expertise is available to them, and they can probably benefit by getting extra credits or other things that they wouldn’t otherwise know what to do,” she said.
Jewett is one of many CPAs across the province who are volunteering their time for the free tax clinics, which allow eligible residents to get their tax returns done with the help of experts.
The clinics are hosted by community organizations across the country, including CPA New Brunswick. Jewett had volunteered for the program many times throughout her 20-year career, including when she lived in Ontario.
But because of Covid-19, CPA New Brunswick has had to limit in-person meetings. So the tax clinics have to move online or over the phone temporarily.
The fact that the clinics can be done even without face-to-face meetings is great, Jewett said.
“For people who may have a hard time coming into the area or to where the clinics are, because some of the people I’ve helped, there wouldn’t have been a clinic in the area. So, there wouldn’t be the barrier of having to get to a place,” she said.
In one week, she’s been able to help an average of 15 people, but she has the time to help more, she said. So far this tax season, she’s been able to serve people from all over the province.
“Before the shutdown, I was just helping people in St. Andrews. But now it’s opened up to anywhere,” she said.
Jewett says it’s important that both phone and online options are available for clients.
“If they’re somebody younger, they usually have the ability to send me some PDF documents. But for a number of the older people, that’s difficult for them, or they just don’t have enough money to have the machine at home, so I do it over the phone,” she said.
It could take a while taking down detailed information over the phone, she said, but once she gets all the information, it usually only takes an hour for her to file a complete tax return.
She says the process doesn’t take a lot more or less time just because it’s online or on the phone, but she misses the in-person interaction.
“What I miss is not meeting the people. It’s nice to see them face-to-face and help them,” she said. “I think you tend to ask more questions, there’s much more interaction and maybe pick up more things than just taking the basic facts from them. So there’s less dialogue than there would be [virtually].”
With this year’s tax season extended to June 1, the clinic is still accepting applications on a first-come, first-serve basis until 6 p.m. on Monday, May 25.
Eligible applicants are those who have a modest income of up to $35,000 a year for one person or $52,500 a year for a five-person family and a simple tax situation. They’ll then be matched with a CPA volunteer to process and file returns online before the June deadline.
The complete eligibility criteria can be found here, and application forms through CPA New Brunswick can be accessed here.