Senior News Line: AARP offers free tax service

By Matilda Charles

February 25, 2023 at 4:10 pm CST

The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Program provides free tax assistance, with a special focus on taxpayers over the age of 50 or who have low to moderate income. Availability is determined at the local or community level. AARP membership is not required to receive assistance.

After preparing my own taxes annually for over 40 years, I’m about to have someone else do them for me for the first time.

This is not without concerns, of course, but the people who volunteer to prepare taxes at the senior center are trained.

They’re part of the AARP income tax assistance program, which means they’re Internal Revenue Service-certified and therefore will know about any recent changes to tax law, which will be handy at this point.

If you haven’t done your taxes yet and want help, or if you want to make a note for next year, do an online search for “AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Locator.”

Once on the site, scroll down and enter your ZIP code or town in the search field to find the locations near you.

Be sure to ask about the forms you’ll need to pick up and fill out before your appointment and whether you’ll be going inside or waiting in the parking lot.

The other good news is that this AARP service is free. For me it means I don’t need to spend $50 once again to buy the computer software and do it myself and hope I haven’t made an error somewhere.