A volunteer tax center that prepared hundreds of returns each year for the military community in western Tokyo will not reopen for the coming filing season. The base is shifting resources toward other mission priorities.

The Yokota Tax Center provided free assistance with federal and state tax returns for more than two decades. Its closure ends a local service that offered personal help to service members, military families, retirees and surviving spouses.

“After careful review, we determined that operating the center would require resources needed to support mission priorities,” 374th Airlift Wing spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Alexzandra Gracey said by email Sept. 18. The wing did not identify specific costs in its explanation.

Volunteer Jeanette DiDuca said by phone Monday that volunteers staffed the center and that its operating costs were minimal. “The main thing it needs is some office space,” she said.

The center’s most recently reported numbers show the scale of the service. During the four month tax season in 2024, 40 volunteers managed 490 appointments and prepared returns for 364 people, according to information the wing posted online that June.

Those volunteers helped clients receive nearly $680,000 in federal refunds and more than $147,000 in state refunds, the wing reported. The center’s work also saved clients an estimated $66,884 in tax preparation fees.

Beyond preparing returns, the center offered volunteers a place to develop practical experience. It also assisted younger service members who may never have completed their own tax returns, according to DiDuca.

Military spouses stationed overseas also used the volunteer positions to gain work experience that may otherwise be difficult to obtain. “Living overseas, this is something I can put on my resume with actual numbers such as how many returns I prepared,” DiDuca said.

The end of personal assistance at Yokota could be especially difficult for elderly retirees and surviving spouses. Arthur Picotte, a 96 year old retired airman and veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, raised concerns about people who cannot prepare their taxes without help.

“We have widows who are in their 70s who can’t do their own taxes,” Picotte said in an interview Friday. “They can’t handle that.”

Paid personal tax preparation remains available through H&R Block Japan offices at Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa prefecture and in Shimbashi, Tokyo. Neither location offers the same convenience as a tax center located directly at Yokota.

Yokosuka is about two hours from Yokota by car and roughly three hours by train. Traveling from Yokota to Shimbashi can take an hour or more, adding a significant trip for anyone seeking personal assistance.

Online filing through H&R Block’s expatriate service starts at $124. Customers who want to file with a tax adviser face a starting price of $259, replacing a Yokota service that had prepared eligible clients’ returns for free.

Gracey said eligible members of the Yokota community will continue to have access to free assistance through other programs. One option is Military OneSource MilTax, which offers free tax preparation software and consultations.

MilTax is available to service members, eligible family members and survivors. Veterans may also use the program within 365 days of separation or retirement, according to Gracey.

The available alternatives provide either remote assistance or paid service at locations away from Yokota. For community members who relied on the base’s volunteers, however, the coming filing season will begin without the familiar local tax center that served them for more than two decades.