January 17, 2006
Dear AIRS Board Member
and Affiliate,
This letter is to update you on AIRS collaborative efforts with the
Internal Revenue Service to increase outreach and education efforts around the
Earned Income Tax Credit. As you may be aware from our prior efforts, the
Earned Income Tax Credit is now the largest federal aid program targeted to the
working poor. Nationally, for tax year 2003, the EITC delivered over $38
billion in benefits to 20 million working families and individuals, helping
lift more working families out of poverty than any other federal program (per
the Census Bureau, the EITC lifts over 4.7 million families out of poverty
annually, including over 2.7 million children). The impact of the EITC on
working families cannot be ignored – for tax year 2003, the total benefits of
the EITC were on the same level as the benefits of the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TAFN) and Food Stamps programs combined.
Despite the significance of the Earned Income Tax Credit as a
critical economic empowerment tool for working families, national studies have
indicated that up to 15% to 25% of eligible families and individuals fail to
claim the EITC to which they are entitled. The studies show that families with
very low incomes, former welfare recipients, recently unemployed workers and
those with language and/or education barriers are among the eligible families
failing to receive the benefits of the EITC. Furthermore, a recent study showed
that minorities, particularly low-income Hispanic families, are less likely to
know about the EITC than low-income non-Hispanic families of any race.
Thus the importance of the Earned Income Tax Credit as an
economic empowerment tool and the fact that millions of eligible families fail
to claim the benefit they have earned, has led the Alliance of Information and
Referral Systems (AIRS)
to collaborate with the IRS to promote education on the Earned Income Tax
Credit. To that end, if you go to http://www.airs.org/, then click on AIRS Affiliates, then on Affiliate
News, you will be able to view examples of some specific Earned Income Tax
Credit outreach and education materials that the IRS has available for you to
utilize at your I&R
locations to inform clients of the benefits and eligibility requirements
related to the Earned Income Tax Credit. These materials may be used by your
assistors during financial assistance calls with client, displayed at your
location or provided directly to potentially eligible clients, based on your
determination of which method of outreach and education is most valuable in
your community.
In addition to the specific information on Earned Income Tax
Credit posted to the AIRS
website for tax year 2005, please note the inclusion of some new products
developed specifically for taxpayers impacted by Hurricane Katrina as they
attempt to file their income taxes in 2006. The IRS has created for
education/outreach flyers under the banner of “Getting Your Taxes Done in 2006
…” titled – “Visiting A Free Tax Preparation Site”, “Obtaining Prior Year
Returns, Transcripts and Social Security Numbers”, “Obtaining Your W-2’s” and
“Determining If You Have A Tax Deductible Casualty Loss” – that will help
taxpayers directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina gather the information they
will need to complete their taxes in 2006. Please utilize these documents to
help your customers impacted by Hurricane Katrina receive the information they
need.
If you would like paper copies of any specific Earned Income
Tax Credit materials, please complete the following form and return it to the
address noted at the bottom of the form. If you have questions, please contact
Don Dill of the IRS at 404-338-7792 or by e-mail at donald.dill(the-at-sign)irs.gov
Our thanks to you for helping eligible families claim the EITC they have
earned!