At least forty people were sitting in the lobby of the Brian Stack Civic Association on Summit Avenue in Union City last Wednesday night patiently waiting for their name to be called. And many would be waiting hours.
This is the scene at the association every Wednesday and Thursday evening after six p.m. and all day Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m. during tax season, which runs from Feb. 1 until April 15. The association offers to prepare tax returns for Union City residents for free on these days, and has since 1989.
“By the end [of the tax season] we will have done about 2,500 tax returns,” said Kathy Stack, who prepares the returns at her husband’s Civic Association.
Stack sees between 30 and 35 people on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and more that 100 people on Saturdays.
“Last Saturday, we were still seeing people until after 2 a.m.,” said Union City Mayor and founder of the association, Brian Stack.
“This place fills up and empties out, fills up and empties out,” said Kathy Stack.
This year the association is also offering free immigration services to the city’s residents as well. This addition was made because of the 245-I law change that former President Bill Clinton passed before leaving office.
This change gives the relatives of illegal immigrants until April 30, to petition for their families to gain legal access to the country without having to return to their home countries.
A moral decision
When Stack was in college, she would pay sometimes $50 to get her tax returns prepared each year.
“That was a large chunk out of my refund,” said Stack. “A bad memory makes you do good things sometimes.” Stack didn’t begin offering free tax return services until 1989.
“Some of the people that come here work three or four jobs in one year and make little money,” said Stack. “With the little refund that these people get, $50 from that is a big chunk of their money.”
Stack is now seeing the same problem when filing immigration papers. Many notary publics and lawyers charge up to $1,500 to process the paper work and, according to Stack, sometimes the papers are not even filed correctly.
“I think it is immoral,” said Stack.
Some of the Union City residents that come to the Civic Association for immigration services have extremely difficult cases, while others are just basic paperwork.
Stack said that if a case is more difficult she refers her clients to lawyers that work through Catholic Services and charge lower rates.
Keep getting more
Since the Civic Association began offering free tax return services in 1989, many residents have continually been going to the association for their services.
“Some people that come here are repeats,” said Kathy Stack. “They come to me every year.”
Prior to the Civic Association opening its Summit Avenue office in 1997, Stack would do tax returns in her home.
“We used to have people wait in our living room,” said Stack. ” Back then I used to see between 10 to 15 people a night. Now I see between 30 and 35 people.”
Just last year, Stack expanded the Civic Association office to include the small storefront next to it to be able to accommodate more people.
“I have this crazy idea that we are going to do even more returns this year,” said Stack, basing her opinion on the amount of people she has seen already.
Stack is ready for the increase. The Civic Association recently purchases two new computers to work on the returns and is training another volunteer to help out.
At 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday last week, Stack had five tax returns already completed with 33 people still waiting in the lobby.