Local groups try to raise awareness of Earned Tax Credit

Local volunteers, trained and certified by the IRS, will provide the assistance.

YOUNGSTOWN — A local effort to make people who work, but don’t earn a lot of money, aware that they may be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit and free help preparing their tax return got under way Thursday.

Mahoning Valley Economic Opportunity Coalition partners launched their 2008 effort to increase the number of EITC filings by qualified taxpayers, and announced the free tax preparation and electronic filing sites that will be available throughout the county.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a federal program that benefits working families in the form of a tax credit for eligible taxpayers. Today is also national EITC Awareness Day.

The EITC is a valuable but complex tax break for lower-income workers. Each year, millions of low-income workers and families are eligible for the EITC but don’t realize they qualify or don’t know how to claim it, officials said.

Through the Mahoning Valley Economic Opportunity Coalition, local residents can take advantage of free help to determine whether they qualify for the EITC as well as receive free tax preparation and electronic filing of their tax return.

Local volunteers, trained and certified by the IRS, will provide the assistance. Additional information may be obtained by calling the IRS at (800) 829-1040 or going on the Internet at www.irs.gov/eitc.

In Mahoning County, during the 2007 filing season, 922 taxpayers received free tax preparation assistance accounting for a total of $477,263 in Earned Income Tax Credits and a total of $1,081,112 in refunds.

Although this was an increase of 36 percent in total refunds from the previous tax year, the IRS estimates that 20 percent of all eligible Earned Income Tax Credits go unclaimed. An estimated 5 million Americans are eligible for the credit but are not taking it, the IRS says.

Super Saturday marks the kickoff of the availability of the free tax preparation and electronic filing service, which will be available to residents of the Mahoning Valley throughout the 2007 filing season.

On Saturday, the free tax preparation and electronic filing of tax returns will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. only at the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, 101 Federal Plaza, Suite 200, and Youngstown State University’s Williamson College of Business Administration, 4th Floor, located at Lincoln and Phelps.

Appointments are not needed, and taxpayers will be assisted on a first-come, first-served basis.

To find the nearest Volunteer Tax Preparation Assistance site, taxpayers can call Help Hotline at (330) 747-2696, dial 211, or call (800) 906-9887.

Members of the Mahoning Valley Economic Opportunity Coalition are American Association of Retired Persons, America Saves, Home Savings and Loan, Internal Revenue Service, Community Legal Aid, MYCAP, Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Volunteer Services Agency, YSU Williamson College of Business Administration and Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way.

alcorn@vindy.com