Like most communities off the road system, there are no tax professionals among the 460 residents of the Bering Sea fishing port, 300 miles west of the Alaska mainland.
So each winter, volunteer accountants and students from upstate New York to Bozeman board tiny planes bound for St. Paul and dozens of other bush villages to prepare tax returns for free.
The program, run by the nonprofit Alaska Business Development Center, secured $3.5 million in refunds last year for thousands of low-income taxpayers in 90 small communities, according to an annual report.
Some village residents have computers and can e-file, but many do not. Older residents in particular speak little English and can find it difficult to decipher the tax codes.
"Often we'll get somebody who hasn't filed for a few years, so we try to educate them," said Michelle Kern, the center's vice president. "For example we'll see a commercial fisherman who didn't know how to file for business expenses one year. The next year he'll bring in all the receipts categorized into gas, food, supplies."
The center began offering free rural tax aid in 1996 to help commercial fishermen, many of whom were filing incorrectly or had simply given up after fish processors stopped doing tax returns for the fleets in the 1980s.
In response, the IRS began seizing the costly permits required to catch and sell large amounts of fish and crab. The policy nearly guaranteed unemployment for both the fisherman who failed to pay and his crew, according to co-founder Gary Selk.
"The IRS agreed that if we could get people into compliance that they would not repossess the permits," said Selk, who is president of the Alaska Business Development Center. "It accomplishes the same thing without having to take a person's livelihood from him."
Villages are sponsored for the program by Alaska Native corporations and nonprofits, or local and state government. Any resident can line up for tax help, regardless of income, as long as a return is not too complex.
The program now attracts volunteer accounting students and faculty from Ithaca College in New York, Gonzaga University in Washington state and universities in Idaho, Montana and Anchorage.
William Kolski, an accounting major from Montana State University, spent his spring break preparing taxes in three Yup'ik Eskimo villages on the Bering Sea coast.
"I think it's a great experience to meet these unique people and to assist them in getting services," Kolski said by phone from Quinhagak. "It's really closely knit. Everyone knows each other and they joke around and poke fun at us."
"The villagers were teasing us that they're going to shut down the airport until their taxes are done," said Mannie Boitz, Kolski's supervisor.
Most of the tax advice is routine. For instance, the preparers make sure everyone knows about the Earned Income Tax Credit, which made up 43 percent of client refunds last year, and the pros and cons of different filing statuses.
But occasionally issues arise that are vintage bush Alaska.
For instance, Inupiat Eskimo taxpayers on the North Slope can take advantage of an itemized deduction, unique to the region, for expenses incurred while whaling.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)