PITTSBURG, Kan. — At age 88, Henry Buset says he might have filed his last tax document for the AARP Tax-Aide program. For more than 25 years, Buset has been a dedicated volunteer tax preparer, helping dozens of people with taxes each season.

But Buset has assisted taxpayers long before his time at Tax-Aide.

For more than 50 years, Buset has been figuring annual taxes for his family and friends for no charge.

“I just wanted to help people out and save them some money,” he said.

Buset learned how to do taxes from a CPA on Fifth Street, and ran with it, saying he always was a “numbers” guy. For three years, he was in the Marine Corps and worked in the pay department because of his skills in math. He said he was jokingly referred to as a “Remington Reader” or a “Corona Commando,” which were nicknames based on typewriter brands.

After he left the Marine Corps., he worked at Kansas Teachers Credit Union for 42 years, and shortly before he retired, he caught the attention of Ken Burbach, who ran the local Tax-Aide program. Burbach heard that Buset volunteered much of his time figuring taxes for people for free.

When Buset retired in 2000, he joined the Tax-Aide program, which helps people prepare federal and state income and Kansas Homestead Tax returns. In the beginning, the volunteers would travel to different credit unions or banks in Pittsburg, Frontenac and Girard, he said. For a while they prepared taxes in the Pittsburg Public Library, then eventually settled at the Homer Cole Community Center.

At the time, the program had just two or three volunteers, but since then, it has expanded to nearly a dozen.

During the first 10 years of his Tax-Aide service, Buset’s wife, Jeanne, volunteered as a facilitator for the program.

“They [clients] would just thank the tax volunteers because they had no money to pay for the taxes to be done,” Jeanne said.

According to Douglas Stuckey, this year, eight counselors and three facilitators e-filed nearly 2,000 tax returns from the Homer Cole Community Center without charging for the services.

Buset commented that when e-filing was introduced, he never wanted to go back to pen and paper again. For many years, Buset would have to fill out 10 to 20 pages of paperwork when filing taxes. Fewer mistakes are made with digital filing, and it generally makes the process easier, he said.

Each year, Buset would have regulars who would specifically ask for him to file their taxes. This year, because of physical challenges, Buset was able to complete only a handful of taxes for some of his die-hard clients. The other tax preparers told his son, Ty, that they had so many people who missed him and asked about him.

“We appreciate Henry’s dedication and expertise over these many years,” Local Coordinator Bob Tomassi said in an email.  “His cheerful demeanor and pleasant disposition have brought honor and distinction to this worthwhile endeavor.”

Buset said helping the people was important to him, especially people on Social Security who couldn’t afford to pay someone to file their taxes. The people, he said, are what he will miss the most about volunteering.

“You get to meet a lot of people, and they get to know you,” he said. “And you really help people.”

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide provides tax assistance to those who qualify, free of charge, with a special focus on taxpayers who are over 50 and have low to moderate income, according to the website. Tax-Aide volunteers are located nationwide and are trained and IRS-certified every year to make sure they know about and understand the latest changes and additions to the tax code.

This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.