My first day to work as a VITA tax preparer was extremely exciting. I was definitely really nervous because it was my first time and I didn’t even know where to start. Even after Will showed me how to work with the software, I was still quiet nervous because I was afraid that the first person I was going to help might have a rare case that I have no idea of how to deal with.

Luckily, however, the first person I helped was a fun guy who just wanted to get some money back. The whole process was really smooth and I felt really great afterward because I just helped him get about a thousand dollars’ worth of refund.

That, however, wasn’t the most exciting part of the day. Just right before the day ended, another guy came in for some help. He lives with his sister who has been supporting. He read the tax tips booklet we have and asked me if he could file as the head of the household, which generally will give single taxpayers a greater refund. He told me that he didn’t know about that until he just read about it in the booklet. I wanted him to qualify for head of  household, but I was also afraid that I might make a mistake. So I checked it again and again and even asked Will to double check it for me. In the end, we determined that he was able to claim the head of household status. At that moment, I was just so excited and happy for him as if I was the one getting the extra refund.

It was just such an experience that I would never forget.

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This entry was written by  Huapeng Qi, one of our volunteer income tax preparers, discussing his first time preparing taxes for a client after passing his Internal Revenue Service certification test discussing his excitement and fear that he overcame while preparing income tax returns for our clients.

Huapeng is a current undergraduate student at the University of California, Cal Berkeley.  He is bilingual in Chinese and English, and also a member of our Cal Corps coalition efforts with the Cal Berkeley Public Service Center.  We are very happy to have him working with us and he has provided excellent service to our clients.