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The annual free Tax Clinic organized by ASSIST Community Services Centre for low income individuals and families has been successfully held from March 22 – April 1, 2010.
As early as in January, our Volunteer Coordinator, Abigail Chan, started to recruit experienced volunteer tax reporters. In the meantime, we received numerous calls from many keen individuals who were willing to offer their help. With their enthusiastic response and vigorous support, we were able to recruit a sufficient number of volunteers to participate in this event to serve the community this year. A total of 55 volunteers took part in this year’s tax reporting service.
During the 10-day service, our volunteers often worked beyond their scheduled hours to help our clients who came for their tax return filing. They were so busy that they even could not have their lunch on time. This year, we arranged 2 leaders in each shift for checking each tax return to ensure the quality of the returns. Team leaders and experienced volunteers made a lot of constructive suggestions to our Centre in order to improve this activity. They were also eager to share their experience and patiently explained complicated issues about reporting tax to new volunteers. Special discussions were held when dealing with difficult situations for a particular person or family to help them report their tax returns.
This is the second year our Centre adopted the electronic filing system, EFILE, to transmit tax returns for clients. There is an obvious increase in the number of clients choosing e-filing their returns. It is a paper-saving and convenient way and they could receive their Notices of Assessment or refunds from the Canada Revenue Agency earlier. The initial statistics show that more than 500 tax returns were prepared in this year’s tax reporting service. During the event, donations of more than $900 were received from those who came for the service in support of our Centre’s development. We would like to express our sincere thanks to their loving hearts and generous donations.
ASSIST Community Services Centre has been offering the tax reporting service for more than 10 years. We continue to accumulate experience and make improvements every year, hoping that next year we will be able to provide even better service. After the event was over, many of those who came to have their tax returns filed expressed the interest in becoming a Tax Clinic volunteer next year. During the whole process, volunteers provided their service to others as well as gaining experience and knowledge about reporting tax. Everyone felt the pleasant atmosphere of mutual assistance in the community. As one of the agencies organizing this activity, this serves as an encouragement and reward to ASSIST.
Here, we would like to give our heartfelt thanks to representatives from Canada Revenue Agency, Christine Burns and Susanna Wong, for offering training sessions and interpretation to our volunteers, as well as the following volunteers for their great efforts in providing this service.
Tax reporting team leaders: Aaron Chiu, Lee Cheung, Mei Lin, Pat Lee, Rita Wai, Tony Chan, Vincent Yeung, Wendy Wen & Wilma Ho
Tax reporting volunteers: Alison Low, Amy Yu, Ann Wu, Annie Li, Annie Pan, Bob Li, Chi Anh Huynh, Chong Wang, Chunying Hao, Cindy Chen, Colin Hu, Crystal Hao, Dongyu Gao, Ella Tsui, Ellen Jiang, Fay Zeng, Flavia Wong, Fion Tam, Gloria Geng, Hilda Pang, Jie Cui, Joanna Kong, Joyce Zhang, Karen Ng, Lina Lu, Linda Zhao, Mary Li, Neri Cheung, Nian Liu, Nina Ni, Raymond Lei, Raymond Wong, Renee Peng, Rex Zhang, Selina Chan, Shanli Qin, Sunny Guo, Susannah Yau, Suzanne Xu, Tan Lau, Teresa Fung, Tina Ma, Vivian Luo, Wanfong Ly-Lin, Wendy Cai, Ying Cheung
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