AEDC volunteers go above and beyond call in tax help

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Many Air Force personnel are aware that Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is available on base for those who qualify, headquartered in the Staff Judge Advocate's (SJA) office.

But SJA Maj. Mitzi Weems is extremely proud of the extra work AEDC's VITA volunteers have done off base, using their skills to save taxpayers $93,027 in tax preparation fees.

"This group of folks went above and beyond in giving of their time and talents to the AEDC local communities to assist in tax preparation," Major Weems said. "They saved a lot of people a great deal of money and gave them peace of mind knowing that they had reliable tax services."

This year's volunteers included Leslie R. Tuttle, team leader/VITA coordinator for AEDC/JA and also a claims examiner and paralegal in the JA office; Mary Grasso, a cook in Base Services; Zakariya "Zak" Mohyuddin, ATA foreign technology engineer; Bob Warwick, retired AEDC engineer and JA legal clerks Brooke Adams and Robert "Chris" Pfender, both stay-in-school students at Motlow State Community College.

In addition to preparing tax returns on base, they also volunteered in Tullahoma, Fayetteville and Winchester. Major Weems said some of the local programs might not have been able to operate without the group's assistance.

"This is a group of people that had no obligation to go out and provide their time and support and services to these income tax assistance programs," Major Weems said. "They chose to do that after hours and I think even on weekends ... to make sure that the local population was provided this program but also so that the individuals who are retirees and other folks who didn't know about the on base program, for whatever reason, had the opportunity to get those services downtown."

The volunteers participated in a three-day tax preparation training directed by the Internal Revenue Service at the Urban League in Chattanooga, and all passed certification tests at the advanced levels. Tuttle said they were able to put that knowledge to good use.

"There are so many new things," she said. "We even got retirees who would come in and you would get new things like 'making work pay,' first-time homebuyers and new homebuyers credits. They train us in all that, and so we get people who come in here and they don't know about all those things, whether they could be eligible to itemize, and since we were proficient at itemizing taxes we could help them then or maybe for the next year.

"I think the retirees really appreciated it," Tuttle said. "I mean, not only did they get their refunds ... but I wanted them to feel comfortable and go over their tax return with them and show that this is what it is and how much you saved ..."

Adams, who assisted the VITA sites in various ways, said she really enjoyed her participation.

"We decided that this was something that was good, that you could always put down as a volunteer on your college application," she said. "It was exciting; it's fun to do something like that, especially for the retirees."

Mohyuddin, who has participated in the program for eight years, said one reason he volunteers is to help low income people avoid paying tax preparation fees charged at commercial sites, but there is also a more personal reason.

"We came to the United States as immigrants," he said. "Being a tax volunteer is my way of showing gratitude to a country that has been good to us."

Volunteers were not paid for the time, mileage or tax preparation while volunteering outside of AEDC.

The AEDC VITA is available to all military, retirees, and their dependents. The VITA program off base, under the direction of the IRS, is available for anyone who makes less than $47,000.