These teens are spending their weekends preparing taxes

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — This tax season is Alaina Vermilya’s second year as a tax preparer, and she’s worked to become adept at sorting through clients’ documents, working through extensive questionnaires and scoring the biggest refund possible.

Vermilya, a trained and certified tax professional, is also 17.

Her work is rewarding, she said, “just knowing that the time I’m dedicating ... continues to impact the clients for months.”

Vermilya is a senior at The Ethel Walker School, a private all-girls school in Simsbury. She and a group of fellow students are currently hosting the school’s fourth annual tax clinic, operating a Hartford location of the nationwide and IRS-endorsed Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

Through the program, individuals and families making up to $56,000 per year can receive free help preparing their tax returns.

Besides Walker, there are other high schools in the state that send teen tax preparers to volunteer sites. Laura O’Keefe, from program partner The Village, listed Manchester High School, Stafford High School and Tourtellotte Memorial High School off the top of her head.

Of the examples O’Keefe listed, however, Walker is the only all-girls school.

Over the last three years, the Walker tax preparers have found a total of $642,000 in returns, according to school spokesperson Michelle Helmin. She added the site’s average return last year was $2,454, which can be especially impactful for low-income individuals and families who otherwise may have unknowingly left money on the table.

The clinic provides a necessary service to clients — Walker Head of School Meera Viswanathan noted that “people are entitled to this" — but it also empowers the teen tax preparers.

Sorting through a stranger’s personal and...