A Guelph man is putting his accountant skills to work by helping those who are struggling with tax season, while also aiming to financially support the education of students in Malawi.
Duane Malcolm’s company, The Counting House, manages bookkeeping and tax preparation for small businesses in Guelph. Now with an organized space and hours at 10C in Downtown Guelph for the tax season, Malcolm is encouraging residents to stop in and drop their tax slips for a pay-what-you-can rate.
“People can come, drop off their tax slips with me. I’ll look after their taxes and they set the price,” says Malcolm about his pay-what-you-can initiative.
He says whatever is left over after he pays his $300 in rent for the duration of the tax season at 10C goes directly toward financing the education of students in Malawi.
Currently, Malcolm says he supports two students who are pursuing their post-secondary education in Malawi.
They include a young man named Asahiwe at Chancellor’s College in Zomba who is studying Computer Science, and a young woman named Lughano at Holy Family College of Nursing in Mwana, who is studying nursing.
“I hope that my efforts this tax season will allow me to support more students. There are certainly more students in need,” says Malcolm.
Malcolm first went to Malawi for five months in 2012 to implement a new accounting system for a microloan, Sage 200.
That’s when he says he stumbled upon Accountants for International Development — a non-profit organization that gives accountants around the world an opportunity to apply their skills to benefit non-profit organizations globally — and realized he could use his finance experience to help those in a country that touched his heart.
“With what minimum wages are in Malawi, it’s very easy for people to just not be able to go to school,” says Malcolm adding that in Malawi, education is subsidized by the government only until Grade 8.
“When we look at the cost of education in Malawi, we’re like holy that’s cheap, but it’s impossible for somebody in Malawi.”
He says as little as a $750 annual fee and $175 for residence per month sounds, it’s still not affordable for an average student in Malawi.
“I did the calculation and for minimum wage, you would have to work 28 years to pay for his four years of university,” says Malcolm.
"And unemployment is 60 per cent to 70 per cent, so the likelihood of even finding minimum wage employment is highly unlikely."
He says while aiding the needs of the students in Malawi, there is no question whether offering pay-what-you-can tax services to help fund education of students in Malawi would be of benefit. And once he raises enough money to help more students, he will share updates on his website.
Malcolm is at 10C on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Thursdays 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.; and Fridays 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
For those unable to drop off their taxes at the arranged times, Malcolm says he is willing to arrange another meeting time and place.
