Immigrants get translation, tax help at St. Louis center

By Aisha Sultan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/11/2007

If filling out a stack of tax forms seems like a daunting task for many Americans, imagine if the forms were written in Chinese.

It could make a stressful situation completely overwhelming.

That's the predicament many recent immigrants face when tackling an annual American rite of passage — reporting earnings to the tax man. In fact, the idea of an income tax return is a new concept to many of those from foreign countries.

Eshet Dagnew, 38, of St. Louis, started laughing when asked whether he had ever filed his income taxes in his homeland of Ethiopia.

"This is my first time ever," Dagnew said, while waiting his turn Saturday at the International Institute on South Grand Boulevard. Volunteers spent the day offering free translation and income-tax preparation services to about 75 people eligible for the assistance. Gedlu Metaferia was translating for Amharic speakers from Ethiopia.

"In Ethiopia you pay taxes; there is no refund," he explained.

The institute is among several organizations in the city and county that offer tax preparation assistance to lower income households. Linda Callanan, an organizer for Saturday's event, said the institute had more people showing up for help than the volunteers could handle.

"We had to turn people away," she said. Often, immigrants who are also supporting parents and other relatives have questions about who qualifies as a dependent for tax purposes, she said.

Mariam Kadmi, a translator of Farsi and Arabic, said some older working immigrants rely on their children. They might not know which forms they need to file and are unfamiliar with the rules and regulations of their new country. And many are afraid of submitting a mistake to the Internal Revenue Service.

An elderly Chinese couple had been waiting for more than two hours to find out exactly which form they were missing to file their return, according to Bingxing Su, a student at St. Louis University who translated for them.

"Language is the biggest barrier," Su said. "When they receive something in the mail, they don't know if they should bring it or not."

asultan@post-dispatch.com +13143408300

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