Need help with your taxes this year?
From Feb. 4 to April 15, AARP Tax-Aide will be doing free tax prep at Sebastopol Center for the Arts—and you don't have to be retired to take advantage of this service

What two words best capture most Americans’ feelings about doing their taxes? Maybe I’m projecting, but my guess is “fear and loathing.”
Shari Walker, the Sebastopol coordinator for AARP Tax-Aide, a free tax preparation service, understands this. Every year at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, the AARP Tax-Aide team prepares taxes for around 300 people.
“The majority of them are scared to death,” Walker said. “They hate their taxes.”
Calming people’s fears and addressing their concerns is part of what makes volunteering as an AARP Tax-Aide counselor so rewarding, said Walker, who has worked as the Sebastopol coordinator for several years.
“The interaction with people is just phenomenal,” she said. “It’s really such a positive experience.”
Walker and her team of eight tax preparers provide their tax service out of a makeshift tax-prep office at Sebastopol Center for the Arts every Tuesday, from Feb. 4 through April 15. The first appointment is at 9 am and the last at 3 pm.
People used to line up in a first-come, first-served fashion, but that has been largely replaced by an online appointment system. There’s also a phone number to call (707- 582-3945) for people who aren’t online.
“Most of our volunteers live in Sebastopol, and we are all retired professionals from various backgrounds including a university professor, federal attorney, CPA, Enrolled Agent, and financial advisors,” said Walker, who was president of a real estate company before she retired. “They have to be somewhat math-oriented.”
Walker and her team do extensive training with the IRS and have to pass an IRS certification test each year to volunteer as a Tax-Aide counselor. (The AARP Tax-Aide program is sponsored by AARP and the IRS.)
“There’s probably 40 to 45 hours of training,” she said. “A lot of it we do on Google Meet and through self-study…It takes me two weeks to study and take the test every year.”
SebArts is one of nine Tax-Aide sites in Sonoma County. Other sites include three locations in Santa Rosa (Franklin Park Clubhouse, Oakmont and Rincon Valley), and the cities of Healdsburg, Windsor, Rohnert Park, Petaluma, and Sonoma. Different locations offer their tax services on different days, so if Tuesday (Sebastopol’s day) doesn’t work for you, you can go to a different location.
“Collectively, they prepared over 2,000 returns last year and generated $1.4 million in refunds,” Walker said.
AARP membership is not required to participate, and there is no age restriction.
How it works
If you’re interested in participating in this free tax service, here’s what to do:
The first thing is to make an appointment. Do this as soon as possible to ensure you get a place.
The next thing to do is to pick up the AARP Tax-Aide tax prep package. This will help you organize all the information and documents you’ll need for your appointment. You can find these at the Sebastopol Library, the Sebastopol Area Senior Center and Sebastopol Center for the Arts. They’re also available at the library and senior center in Guerneville.
At your appointment, you’ll speak first to a “client facilitator,” who’ll make sure you have all the information and documents you’ll need to meet with the tax counselor.
Once you meet with your tax counselor, “it takes about an hour and a half to go through the process,” Walker said. The tax counselors use a program called TaxSlayer. “After your return is prepared, it goes to a second tax counselor who quality reviews all the work that was done to make sure that it was done correctly…After we do the tax returns, we go through it in detail with the taxpayer.”
Clients sign an authorization for the tax counselor to file their taxes using E-file.
What they do and what they don’t do
AARP Tax-Aide counselors only handle individual returns. “The majority of people have very simple tax returns, including brokerage statements,” Walker said.
“There are a few things that we don’t do, like if you have rental income or if you have a small business,” she said.
Other disqualifiers include:
Being a resident of California for only part of the tax year (exception: dependents)
Purchased a solar power system and want to claim the tax credit
Bought an electric vehicle and want to claim the tax credit
While the AARP Tax-Aide counselors don’t do business taxes, they do prepare taxes for self-employed people, if they have less than $50,000 in expenses and no employees.
“We do more self-employed tax returns than any other place in Sonoma County,” Walker said.
What their clients say
Judith Reimuller has used AARP’s Tax-Aide program for several years. “It’s worked very well for me,” she said. “I started doing it when I was still working and then after I retired. For years and years, I did my taxes myself and they were fairly simple, but I would wait till the very last minute because I didn’t want to do it. I don’t like forms of any kind and dealing with money and all of that.”
Helene Willus has also used the service for years. “Oh, it’s been great, and it’s gotten better,” she said, noting she appreciates the new appointment policy. “They are just wonderful. They really help me. I always have to pay taxes, but that’s because I work and I get Social Security, but I’m thrilled that they can do the taxes for me.”
To make an appointment, use AARP Tax-Aide’s online appointment system, or call 707- 582-3945.