Two Myths about Volunteering at the TAP Tax Clinic

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TAP Tax Clinic

Each year at TAP, we file over 1,000 free tax returns for low-income residents of Roanoke. This work relies on the help of volunteers. Here are the two biggest myths about volunteering at the Tax Clinic—and why they shouldn’t stop anyone from helping out.

Myth #1: I don’t know enough about tax return preparation

Most people don’t—at first. Many of our volunteers begin with no prior experience in tax return preparation. As a result, volunteers are trained through Link & Learn Taxes, an online program used by the IRS. In addition, our tax site coordinator provides personal training to ensure you’re confident in your knowledge.

Sherman Witcher, a Virginia Western student and 2019 Tax Clinic volunteer, said “knowing almost nothing about tax return preparation, it was somewhat intimidating to dive in headfirst, but the IRS training modules are tailored to people who have little to no background.”

Likewise, Sofiia Melnyk also began volunteering with no experience. Melnyk moved from Ukraine in 2016, and did not know how the US filing process worked. She decided to volunteer to get accounting experience. After her training, she helped over 100 families file tax returns.

Each year, volunteers get the training they need to help our clients. All together, we help over 1,000 people file their tax returns without a single rejection.

Myth #2: I don’t have enough time

Schedules today are packed with work, making dinner, or soccer practice. Due to this, the TAP Tax Clinic offers an online training program. Link & Learn Taxes is self-paced, meaning you can complete it as you find time in your day.

“With the online modules,” Witcher said, “I could easily study the material without having to drive 40 minutes from Franklin County.”

Once the training is complete, you can offer as much time as you want to the Tax Clinic. “I was able to build my own schedule that worked with my college classes,” said Melnyk. Every bit helps. The Tax Clinic is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every weekday, and runs from February 1 to April 15. We welcome any hours you can help.

Facts about Being a Tax Clinic Volunteer

Research shows that volunteering has many benefits. Here are a few that volunteering at the Tax Clinic offers:

Fact #1: Help your community

This one’s obvious. The TAP Tax Clinic offers free tax preparation for low-income Virginians. Without the tax clinic, these clients may miss out on important credits or spend a majority of their refund on a paid service. While volunteering, Melnyk assisted a client who was overjoyed after discovering that she didn’t owe thousands in taxes, but in fact would be receiving a refund. “There were so many people who made me feel that my volunteering time truly mattered,” Melnyk said. “It was a rewarding experience.”

Fact #2: Connect with people & feel better

Volunteering is proven to lower feelings of loneliness. Beyond that, a study by Indiana University’s School of Philanthropy found that volunteering lowered stress, reduced feelings of depression, and elevated mood. In fact, the study found that volunteers spend 38% fewer nights in the hospital.

Fact #3: Build your resume, or put your skills to work

Volunteering at the TAP Tax Clinic will give you new skills and hone your knowledge of tax law. Professionals can earn licensing credits to boost their careers. Students like Melnyk and Witcher can get résumé-building experience. Specifically, those studying business, accounting, or finance can get out of the classroom and learn in a hands-on fashion. Depending on their program, students can even earn course credit from volunteering.

Further, Witcher found that his volunteer time at the Tax Clinic made his résumé stand out. “I think that students should seek to distinguish themselves from their peers, and TAP is a great outlet for doing so,” he said.

Sign Up to Volunteer or Find Out More

The deadline for volunteer sign up is January 5, 2022. Group training will begin in October 2021.

To get involved, please contact Teffany Henderson at 540-283-4916 or teffany.henderson@nulltapintohope.org.

To learn more about the TAP Tax Clinic here.

Indoor Plumbing and Rehab program

Help Keep Families Safe with Plumbing Rehabilitation

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Our Indoor Plumbing Rehabilitation (IPR) program helps to ensure families have safe drinking water, eliminates hazardous outhouse trips, and more. However, due to the pandemic, project material costs have skyrocketed. Without donations from supporters like you, IPR will not only have to turn down people who ask for help, it will have to drop some projects it has already started.

Today, most of us take indoor toilets, showers, and running water for granted. These basic necessities are not only convenient, they’re essential for safety—but not everyone in our community has them. 

Same Funding, Increasing Need

Since the pandemic began, IPR has received even more requests for help than usual. However, state and federal funding haven’t increased, while the cost of materials like lumber has risen sharply. “It’s been a struggle trying to get these projects up off the ground,” IPR program manager Liz Puckett says.

IPR does its best to keep costs low. However, it often has to install new septic systems, drill new wells, or even rebuild badly damaged houses. 

A New Home

Willie Bell Ray benefited from IPR only because generous family members pitched in to fill gaps in the program’s funding. 

Willie Bell, who is in her 70s, lived with her disabled son in a 50-year-old trailer. The trailer had no indoor plumbing. To avoid the hazard of walking down the hill to use the outhouse at night, she and her son used five-gallon buckets instead. They also had to carry water up from their well to cook and wash dishes.

The trailer was so damaged that it needed to be fully replaced. However, IPR nearly had to turn Willie Bell down because material costs vastly outgrew the program’s budget. They were only able to continue with the project because Willie Bell’s family supplied a new trailer. Now, she and her son have running water, a shower, and a toilet. 

Will you help?

Not everyone is as lucky as Willie Bell to have a family support system. IPR has been unable to move forward with two projects this year because they exceeded budget. Both houses belong to families with children, including one with a child under five years old. “It hurts me to my heart that I can’t help them,” Liz says. 

Your donations will help ensure that IPR is able to make homes safer for the families that live there. Can we count on you?

To donate, please visit this page. Don’t forget to write a note that you want your donation to support Indoor Plumbing Rehabilitation!

Supporter Story: Network Computing Group

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Mark Bowles first heard of TAP around the time he founded Network Computing Group in 1994. He worked with TAP occasionally, and in 2014 NCG became TAP’s main IT provider. Over the past seven years Mark has gotten a much closer look at our work, and NCG and its employees have become some of our most consistent supporters.

What Stands Out

Mark has met the heads and staff of several different TAP programs. He feels like he’s always learning something new, but one thing remains consistent across the agency: teamwork. “Everybody seems to be rowing in the same direction,” he says. “They all have the same purpose and passion for what they do, and that always impresses me.”

He also says TAP stands out for the breadth of our services and the wide variety of people we help. In fact, his wife told him that her mother, a single parent, had relied on a TAP childcare center while she went to work.

“Everybody has a cause that’s important to them, whatever their passion is, and for me it seems like TAP touches most of those.” He’s been amazed to learn that several other nonprofits in the Roanoke Valley, including CHIP and RADAR, began as part of TAP.

How Donations Multiply

Mark says that just as NCG gains companies’ trust by taking care of their IT needs, TAP has gained NCG’s trust through its effective use of charity dollars. It’s hard to decide what groups to donate to, but Mark says both he and his employees feel that TAP is uniquely positioned to make donations go a long way toward helping the community.

Mark wants the community to know that donations to TAP multiply. Not only does every donated dollar help us leverage $52 in state and federal funds, it also helps us touch many more lives than just those of people directly involved. “When you help one person, you’re not just helping that person,” he says, “but the fifteen people that they help, and the hundred that those fifteen people help.”

The main takeaway from his close look at the agency over the years? “It’s almost unfair that others don’t get to understand all the stuff that TAP does,” he says.