Help for Russian Emigres Who Find the U.S. Taxing

They fled tyranny and now they’ve got taxes. But there’s help yet for Soviet emigres bent on adjusting to America.

Accountants.

For the fourth year, accountants affiliated with the United Jewish Fund will help prepare tax forms for Russian immigrants who thought their old bureaucracy was confusing.

The free tax-preparation session begins 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Jewish Federation Council, 6505 Wilshire Blvd.

The session is aimed at a group for whom the concepts of deductions and earned-income credits--or even filing a tax return at all--can seem as foreign as baseball.

“It’s a totally different system,” said Tatyana Kodner, who arrived from St. Petersburg six years ago and works with new arrivals. “(In the former Soviet Union), you never file anything. . . . The government is just deducting (money) on a monthly basis.”

Not long after her arrival here, an accountant charged Kodner $35 to do her 1987 return--on only two months’ income.

“I thought it was outrageous,” she said.

The tax-help session is open to emigres from the former Soviet Union who have been in the United States for three years or fewer. Interpreters will be on hand.

Emigres should call (213) 651-5999; volunteer accountants can sign up by calling (213) 852-7774.