Earned Income Tax Credit EITC

2/07/05

Effort Underway to Get the Word Out About Tax Credits

Earned Income Tax Credit website

County Executive Andy Spano announced an all-out effort by the county to get people of modest incomes the federal and state tax breaks they are entitled to.

At stake is the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and a similar state credit. People seeking information should call 1-866-914-EITC.

Spano also urged people who go to tax preparers to be aware of protections incorporated in the county's new Tax Preparer legislation and the accompanying Taxpayers' Bill of Rights.

“I want to make sure people get the money they are entitled to,” said Spano. “So we have a major outreach effort underway to contact people who might qualify for the EITC. At the same time, we want everyone to know about changes to our consumer code to protect people from fly-by-night tax preparers.”

THE EITC
The EITC is a tax credit available to people with maximum household incomes of $35,458. Eligible people could receive a credit of up to $5,590 on their 2004 tax return. The amount a family gets varies depending on the number of children in the household and the amount of earnings. (See chart at the end of this release)

The EITC can supplement the wages of low income earners and reduce taxes for those who qualify.

The IRS estimates that as many as 10,000 eligible Westchester residents last year failed to apply for this significant tax credit – either because they didn’t know about it or were unable to fill out the appropriate IRS forms, as well as a similar state form that qualifies a person for a credit on state taxes.

To change this, Westchester has expanded a campaign it began last year.

To educate the public, the county is using outbound calling, public service announcements, bus cards, brochures and flyers, many of them in Spanish, as well as a website (www.westchestergov.com/eitc).
To help people determine if they qualify, the county has set up a special hotline: 1-866-914-EITC.
To help people fill out the needed forms, the county has recruited and trained about 70 volunteers. These volunteers, who are certified by the IRS, have been assigned to four locations: White Plains, Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Peekskill.

People seeking assistance should call 1-866-914-EITC to make an appointment for the free tax help; they are asked not to show up at any of the sites without an appointment. These services will be available from now until April 15. The hours of operation of each location will vary to accommodate the needs of targeted populations and include daytime hours as well as evenings and some weekends.

This initiative is a collaborative effort of the following county departments and community organizations: Office of the County Executive; the departments of Social Services, Consumer Protection, and Senior Programs and Services; AARP, SER of Westchester, WestCOP and Westchester One Stop Employment Center.

TAX PREPARER LEGISLATION AND TAXPAYERS' BILL OF RIGHTS

Initiated by Spano in 2003, the legislation was passed by the Board of Legislators last September. It went into effect Nov. 15. It does the following:

Requires individuals engaged in the practice of income tax preparation to disclose their identity;
Establishes notification requirements for the offering of refund anticipation loans;
Creates a consumer alert registry to inform consumers about tax preparers who have engaged in unlawful practices;
Establishes a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, which tax preparers in Westchester must provide to their customers. It details the rights of consumers to know the qualifications of the preparer and how they compute charges. It also mandates disclosure of the conditions of a loan against a refund that a tax preparer may offer a customer. It also includes advice to the taxpayer (i.e. never send cash to the government, never allow a refund to be sent to the tax preparer, etc.).

The full code is available at www.westchestergov.com/consumer

or by calling the Consumer Department at 995-2155.

The law is enforced by the Department of Consumer Protection’s Weights and Measures Division, which will establish and maintain a consumer-alert registry of tax preparers that have violated the law. The registry will be available to consumers upon request and posted on the department’s web page.

First-time offenders will be given a warning. Second-time offenders can be fined $500. After that, violators may be fined $1,000 for each offense.