The AARP Foundation's Tax-Aide program is providing free tax services for people on the Central Coast.
It's a new year and that means it's time to file your taxes. Paul Perry of San Luis Obispo says he’s been getting his taxes filed for free through the Central Coast Tax-Aide service for the past decade.
“They're very friendly and very professional," Perry said. "They do the job right. It saves me the headache of having to do it online or hire a CPA to do it."
Providing free tax assistance to anyone, the country’s largest free, volunteer-staffed program caters especially to taxpayers over the age of 50 as well as low-income to moderate-income earners.
“I can just walk over here with my little intake form with all the information they need to bring back last year's tax preparation that they did for us,” Perry said.
According to 14-year volunteer Norman Baxter, not much has changed to the tax filing requirements this year; however, he did mention that the cap for business expenses for individual business owners has increased to $50,000 from $35,000.
“We cannot do people that have employees but a single person operating their business, we can now do the return if their expenses are up to $50,000," Baxter stated.
Last year, Central Coast Tax-Aide prepared more than 3,000 tax returns for San Luis Obispo County residents. More than 800 of those were located in Paso Robles.
“We expanded the number of sites and we've expanded the outreach of, particularly in North County, to lower income population," Baxter concluded.
For help filing your taxes, go to ccfreetax.org to make an appointment at one of the ten locations available across the county.
AARP Tax-Aide is also available at the Dick DeWees Center in Lompoc on Mondays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
