Earned Income Tax Credit Committee returns $553,000 to area residents

CHENANGO COUNTY – In an attempt to bring more state and federal funds back into the local community, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Partnership Committee has worked for the last four years to help area taxpayers file their state and federal tax returns and return hundreds of thousands of previously unclaimed dollars to the community.

The EITC Committee was started in 2004. Manned by volunteers, the program offers free tax preparation for those who meet the income eligibility requirements. Trained by the IRS, the volunteers help area residents to file tax returns, get a refund and encourage those who don’t already have bank accounts to set them up and bank their money.

For the 2007 tax season, the EITC committee was able to prepare 568 tax returns for Chenango County residents, bringing more than $354,000 in state and federal earned income credits and more than $553,000 in total refunds back to the area. Since the program started in 2004, the number of returns filed and the amount of money that has been returned to the community has steadily increased from year to year. In the first year of the program, less than 50 tax returns were filed, that number grew to 150 in the second year, 503 last year and finally 568 for the 2007 tax season.

Unlike other tax credits, the EITC is different because low to moderate income families are usually eligible for the credit, even if they paid a very small amount of federal income tax. According to the IRS and the United Way of America, the EITC is the nation’s largest and most powerful anti-poverty program.