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Now that's tax relief! Photo by Jim Craven Phyllis Hense grins at discovering she will get a tax refund of nearly $4,000. Hense was among taxpayers who went to Ascension Lutheran Church Wednesday to get help with their returns. Volunteer Don Haag, right, helped Hense discover her windfall. $4,000 refund stuns woman; you can still get help by today's deadline By BILL VARBLE Tax assistance Need last-minute tax help? Ascension Lutheran Church in Medford serves taxpayers on a walk-in basis. It's open from 9 a.m. to noon. The Medford Senior Center had a few morning appointments left as of Wednesday afternoon. Call 772-2273. There's help in Building 209 of the VA Domiciliary in White City from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It's not just for Dom residents. The Postal Service will collect and postmark returns until midnight at the downtown Medford Post Office. Both the IRS and the Oregon Department of Revenue plan to offer tax assistance from 5 p.m. to midnight at the Post Office. Phyllis Hense could be forgiven for putting off her income taxes until April 14. "It's been such a horrible year," she says. "I just knew I was going to have to pay." But that's not how it plays out Tuesday. The whooping echoing through the halls of Ascension Lutheran Church in Medford is coming from Hense when tax preparation volunteer Don Haag tells her she's getting back almost $4,000. "Ohhh God," Hense says. "It's like Christmas!" In 1998 the 43-year-old Medford single mom lost money in a bad investment, saw a divorce become final, was forced to take a second job to make ends meet, then had to quit that job when she injured her back. Things got so bad she was using a credit card to buy gas and groceries. "I just knew I was going to have to pay," she says. While things may not work out this way for everybody, there's at least still help with those taxes -- even if you have waited until the last day. The American Association of Retired Persons is offering free tax preparation help at various spots around the Rogue Valley (co-sponsored by the IRS), and the U.S. Postal Service is chipping in with special hours. Paul Wright of Medford, an AARP volunteer, says the Ascension Lutheran site has done almost 1,000 tax returns since February. "The first three weeks it was a madhouse," he says. "Then it quieted down. Now we're busier again." All tax returns here are filed electronically. Other AARP sites will file paper returns. The preparers are volunteers, 15 at this site alone. There are no income qualifications for eligibility. "We're limited only by the complexity of the return," Wright says. "If they have a bunch of depreciation, like an oil well in the back yard, we tell them they need to see a paid preparer." Shirlee Lulich of Medford says she and her husband paid somebody to do their taxes last year and brought the returns in to be filed electronically only to have an AARP volunteer find an error. The miscue, which was in the IRS's favor, stemmed from the taking of money from an IRA to buy a home. "This year we said we'd just start here," Lulich says. She tells volunteers she didn't face the tax man earlier because she was afraid she'd wind up having to pay. Wright tells her you can file as early as you want, and you don't have to pay until April 15. Chris Yanez, who's moving from Portland to Medford, came in after her sister told her about the service. "I was worried I wouldn't be able to find the right form or the right book," she says. "They usually have all the forms except the one I need." Meanwhile, Don Haag tells Hense that if everything works right, the money could be in her account by Monday. Fighting back tears, Hense says she'll pay off her credit cards, then cut them in half. "I feel like I won the lottery." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA