Gordon Thomas has been a volunteer with the FCSS Community Volunteer Income Tax Program for 20 years, and his now retiring.
After 20 years of filing 8,200 income tax documents as a volunteer, Gordon Thomas is putting his calculator down.
Thomas, who is now 86 years old, has been volunteering with Family and Community Support Services’ (FCSS) Community Volunteer Income Tax Program for longer than anybody has worked there.
“About 60 years ago, I used to have an office at H&R Block, I did bookkeeping,” said Thomas. “It was too boring to lay around (after I retired) so I started to work for (FCSS) and do taxes for them.”
Thomas has been helping low-income families in the area to file their basic income taxes through the program.
It’s government-run and volunteers can take seminars to prepare, but Thomas’ experience made him a perfect fit.
For some people accountants do the job and for others, mom is the accountant.
And for at least 350 Westlock-area people each year, it was Thomas. While most people know who’s helped them, this type of transaction has been entirely anonymous, said Maureen Schiller, program coordinator at FCSS.
She spoke about the necessity of a service like this one to the community.
Receiving Alberta seniors benefits or Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped rests on filing a basic income tax, so Thomas’ services have proven invaluable.
“That’s a lot of tax returns. … They all seem to be happy about it, so that’s the big part,” said Thomas, who’s a bit of a statistician and has kept track of how many he’s done over the years.
“I don’t think I would’ve retired but I got sick,” said Thomas of the only reason that has prompted his leave as he laughed at the idea of 20 more years of helping others.
At FCSS, they are in agreement.
“(Thomas) was doing the majority of the returns. … What can you say about a gentleman that’s volunteered countless hours for the community, touched a lot of different people’s lives,” said Schiller.
“With him retiring, it makes our program a little different. We are in need of volunteers for this program to continue.”
In a year, around 700 program applicants get their taxes filed through the program. Eligibility to apply is based on yearly income which is under $35,000 for a single person and under $45,000 combined for a couple.
