About Us
Barbara Dooley has always had a head for numbers. She got that from her father, who trained as an accountant and did the bookkeeping and taxes for his agricultural business.
“When he retired, he started a small tax business to keep himself active,” she says. “It's something I shared with him.”
Barbara, 69, puts her head for numbers to good use as an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteer. Tax-Aide provides tax assistance to anyone, free of charge, with a special focus on taxpayers who are over 50 or have low to moderate income.
When her sister showed her an announcement for the program in an AARP member newsletter, Barbara wasted no time signing up. “I didn't know much at first,” she remembers, “but I was hooked.”
In the 17 years since, Barbara has worked with Tax-Aide in three different states: Kansas, Missouri, and Virginia. At the peak of her involvement, she was managing several sites, volunteering five-and-a-half days a week during tax season. When the pandemic hit, she even prepared taxes virtually for two states in the same tax season.
“As a volunteer, I’ve seen very different populations, not just economically but also racially or ethnically diverse,” Barbara explains. In the poorer areas, many clients are grandparents raising grandchildren. Others would have their taxes done and then ask where to find the local food bank. Many don’t speak English.
And everywhere she’s worked, Barbara has seen the financial difficulties facing older women. “If they’re single or widowed, they’re often living on very little,” says Barbara. “If they don’t get rent support or property tax support when they file, they tell us they have to choose between medication and food and paying rent.”
Barbara’s work with Tax-Aide is rewarding on many levels, she says. Not only has she been able to find clients money they didn’t know they were owed — money that often makes a significant difference in their well-being — but she also finds joy in the relationships she builds through the program, both with clients and with her fellow volunteers.