cshapiro – I once heard a line to the effect that “one person’s chessed is another person’s parnassah.” Everyone must judge for themselves what they can afford to do for others, but generally speaking if something is your source of parnassah it is inappropriate for people to ask for a freebee. Meaning that if I have a guest room and someone asks me to put someone up for a Shabbos, it’s a great Chessed, but if my parnassa is that I own a guest apartment that I rent out, it would not be appropriate to ask me to “do a favor” and lend it. Similarly, if doing tax returns is your parnassah (or a part of it), I would definitely not say do it for free — you’re setting up a difficult precedent. If you don’t really do individual returns as a parnassah, and you have the time and want to do a Chessed, go ahead!
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