Volunteers running free tax clinic across the Boundary

Community volunteers are running a free, COVID-modified tax clinic for low-income earners across the Boundary.

Grand Forks’ Lorraine Dick said she and three others at People Helping People are running this year’s clinic over-the-phone in order to comply with social distancing guidelines set by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. People anywhere in the Boundary can call-in and read their tax forms to volunteers who will then file clients’ returns using software donated by the Canada Revenue Agency, Dick explained.

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Clients must first verify their identify, she said, qualifying that she personally knows most of her clients, anyway.

The clinic runs until the end of tax season on April 3.

People Helping People started running free tax clinics in 2011, she said. The work is always taxing — if the reader will excuse the pun — but Dick said it’s always worth the effort.

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“Every year I wonder why I do it,” Dick said. “But when the first person of the season gives me a big ‘Thank you!’, then I remember why.”

The same goes for Dick’s fellow volunteers, who every year donate not just their time, but also their personal printers, stationery and postage for people who would otherwise struggle to file their tax returns, she said.

Anyone with a simple, “cut and dry” tax return can call Dick through Facebook or her personal telephone number at 250-442-0962, she said.

@ltritsch1
laurie.tritschler@grandforksgazette.ca
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