Earned Income Tax Credit
The 6th Annual EITC Awareness Day
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day is an event organized annually by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its partners each January to educate the public about the federal EITC and requirements to claim the credit. The goal is to raise awareness of EITC to ensure every qualified worker claims and receives their EITC.
The boost provided by the EITC and other valuable federal tax credits provide many working families the opportunity to pay their household bills and meet their children’s needs even through salary cutbacks or periods of unemployment. Yet according to the IRS, each year millions of eligible workers do not claim their credits, missing out on millions of dollars they earned.
In 2010, the EITC lifted about 6 million people out of poverty, including about 3 million children. The poverty rate among children would have been nearly one-third higher without the EITC. The EITC lifts more children out of poverty than any other program.
More about the EITC:
- National Earned Income Tax Credit & Child Tax Credit Outreach Campaign
- Questions and Answers About the EITC
- 2011 Earned Income Tax Credit Estimator
- IRS.gov - EITC Awareness Day
- Podcast: The Earned Income Tax Credit
- Policy Basics: The Earned Income Tax Credit
National EITC Outreach Campaign
Each year millions of eligible workers risk missing out on the Earned Income Credit (EIC), the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and free tax filing assistance for low- and moderate-income workers because they do not know they qualify, do not know how to claim the credits or do not know where to find free tax filing assistance. Your outreach efforts can ensure that eligible workers can receive the tax credits they’ve earned.
Analyses
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Romney's Charge That Most Federal Low-Income Spending Goes for "Overhead" and "Bureaucrats" Is False
Updated January 23, 2012
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Media Briefing: The Effects of a Repatriation Tax Holiday
October 13, 2011
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Policy Basics: The Earned Income Tax Credit
Updated September 6, 2011
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Misconceptions and Realities About Who Pays Taxes
Updated May 31, 2011
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Testimony: Aviva Aron-Dine on the Distribution of Tax Burdens and the Fairness of the Tax System
May 3, 2011
- More:
- View All By Date
Background
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a federal tax benefit for low- and moderate-income workers, reduces the impact of the payroll and income taxes they pay; it also supplements the earnings of very low-wage workers. Building on the EITC’s success, roughly half of the states have enacted state EITCs, which offset state taxes and supplement wages for low-income workers.
