Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day
January 25 is Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day.
The EITC is a refundable tax credit for low- and moderate-income families and individuals. The federal EITC provides up to $5,891 — depending on income and family size.
Anyone eligible for a federal EITC automatically qualifies for a state EITC if their state offers it; more than half of states do. State tax credits range from 3 percent to 40 percent of the federal EITC.
“Four out of five people claim and get the EITC they earned but that leaves millions of people who miss boosting their income by claiming EITC,” says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which organized EITC Awareness Day to educate the public about the EITC and requirements to claim the credit.
To help direct-care workers get the tax credits they are entitled to receive and access free tax preparation assistance services, PHI has launched Earn, Keep, Save MORE (EKSM), an online tax resource center. EKSM provides employers with downloadable materials, such as paycheck stuffers, posters, and fact sheets, to help them spread the word about the ETIC to their low-income employees.
“Potentially eligible people miss this credit because they don’t file a federal tax return,” explains the IRS website, which also hosts an array of materials to raise awareness about the EITC.
— by Deane Beebe
