Today I completed 3 tax returns together with my partner Rebecca Graham.
● What are your most vivid first impressions of the VITA site? Describe the settings, people, actions and positive or negative feelings you had.
As I entered VITA cite I was surprised how friendly the environment was. My first interaction was with 2 cite coordinators. They were really helpful and explained me everything. All the volunteers and cite coordinators were in the same room with a little space between tables. We had Publication 17 on each table. I was a bit worried in the beginning because I felt like it was going to be very different to actually do tax returns when the people are sitting in front of me rather than doing practice problems …show more content…
I was really excited to meet all the people, help them file their tax returns and get hands-on experience. However, I was worried that I might’ve not been as helpful as I wanted to be and not been able to provide a valuable service to the community. The first tax return was one of the easy tax returns when I was doing practice tests as the person only had 1 W-2. However, it took us more than half an hour to file. After the first return, we became much more comfortable with interacting with people and doing tax returns. I realized that this means a lot to them and they really value our efforts and willingness to file their taxes. The cite coordinator also thanked us and told that we did a great job. I look forward to my next visit to volunteer a t United …show more content…
The first taxpayer mostly saw me together with being a resource, as a friend and as a student. She talked to me about my major, my interests, classes I was taking at Furman and what kind of education Furman was providing. She also shared with me her personal story and how she was taking care of her mother. The other taxpayers mostly saw me as a resource and asked me questions about how their tax returns were calculated and what various numbers meant. They asked me my opinion about how beneficial standard deduction was for them, which method was better direct deposit or having refund mailed to them, and the payment plans available to them from