The Region of Queens is stepping away from a program that provides people with help to file their income taxes opting to go to a volunteer coordinator.<\/p>\n
Mayor Darlene Norman says the municipality has offered staff time to assist with scheduling a program providing people assistance to file their income tax for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n
For eight weeks each year, four to six volunteers make themselves available at the Liverpool legion on a weekly basis to help people prepare their income tax.<\/p>\n
Norman says a large amount of recreation staff time went into the program answering 2,400 calls in 2021 booking close to 800 appointments.<\/p>\n
Because of that investment in resources, Norman says the region looked to the community for a volunteer to take on the coordinator role.<\/p>\n
Norman says it didn\u2019t take long for three people to offer their services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not something that\u2019s the responsibility of municipal government and people recognize that,\u201d said Norman.<\/p>\n
She says the new volunteer coordinator will be able to take bookings outside municipal staff hours making the program more flexible for users.<\/p>\n
It also shows not every job needs to be taken on by government as there are many people willing to step forward to help their community<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they are an at-home person, they\u2019ve had experience with this program before, they understand the workload they\u2019re taking on and they think this would be a great way to give back to people,\u201d said Norman.<\/p>\n
Tax preparation clinics will be held by appointment, every Tuesday afternoon from Feb. 22 to April 26, 2022 at the Royal Canadian Legion in Liverpool.<\/p>\n
To book an appointment, call 902-521-4544.<\/p>\n