Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Campaign

If your company has workers who earned less than $41,646 in 2008, they may qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. This valuable credit could put up to $4,824 extra in employees’ pockets. However, IRS estimates that up to one in four qualifying individuals will fail to claim and receive the credit. With assistance from you and your members, we can reach out to these workers and reduce that number.

The intent of EITC is to offset the burden of Social Security taxes on lower-earning workers. EITC is a refundable credit, meaning taxpayers can receive refunds if their EITC and federal withholding exceed their tax liabilities and other debts, even if they had no tax withheld.

However, before taxpayers can receive EITC, they must first file federal income tax returns, even if they are not otherwise required to file, and claim the credit. Some states have a similar tax credit, increasing the dollars due these workers.

IRS has several resources to help your members inform their workforce about EITC. IRS’ EITC employer page at http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=129062,00.html includes links to technical information, communication toolkits and marketing materials. Corporate Voices, a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that represents the private sector on working family policy issues, also publishes a downloadable employer EITC guide at http://www.cvworkingfamilies.org/.

Some relatively inexpensive ways you can alert your employees about EITC include:

Placing posters in employee break rooms;
Posting a message on company intranet sites;
Including an article in company newsletters;
Linking from their intranet sites to EITC information on www.irs.gov;
Sending an e-mail message to their workforce;
Including a stuffer with their Form W-2 mail-out;
Leveraging other internal communication channels;
Including EITC information in new employee orientations; and
Joining with other interested parties in their communities to focus a spotlight on the credit during National EITC Awareness Day on January 30, 2009.

Please consider an EITC awareness campaign and help your lower-earning employees get everything due them. If you want additional information about EITC or have any questions, please contact:

Evelyn J. Williamson
Internal Revenue Service
Stakeholder Liaison
SBSE/CLD - SL Field Greensboro, NC
(336) 378-2274
Evelyn.Williamson@irs.gov