Bush tries to ruin the EITC. Let's hope he fails. No. Let's make him fail.

[JanMichael]

It's tax season again and those who are entitled to the EITC NEED to be notified that they are in fact eligible for assistance! Various stories state that up to 25% of EITC earned money in the US is not claimed. That's unacceptable.

WMNF 88.5 Tampa had a short segment on the EITC yesterday summarizing Tampa and Florida EITC funds not claimed. They used a number somewhare around (From memory, I could be mistaken) $150,000,000 with around 100,000 families not benefitting. The Sun-Sentinel states that "85,000 eligible families had not claimed the credit, leaving $99 million unclaimed in Washington", either way that's money that would normally go straight back into the local economy. Sadly it isn't.

Sen. Schumer has a good breakdown of NY EITC claims and unclaimed funds: http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/special_reports/EITC%20upstate_rpt_4.29.03.pdf

More from Minnesota, "The value of the EITC depends on the number of children in a family and the amount of income earned through work. For tax year 2002, working families raising one child but earning less than $29,201 are eligible for a tax credit up to $2,506. Working fam-ilies raising two or more children and earning less than $33,178 are eligi-ble for a credit up to $4,140.", found here: http://www.cdf-mn.org/PDF/EITCReportJan03_Final.pdf

Here's a nifty article outlining what the Bush people are trying to do to the EITC (As part of a concentrated attack on all those who are not already quite wealthy): http://www.blackcommentator.com/51/51_eitc.html

"Like a pack of pot-bellied hyenas, the Bush men instinctively target the weak – in this instance, the four million extended families among the 16 million households that make use of federal Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC). Under proposed changes in the EITC rules, relatives raising children not directly their own, the saviors of so many fragile families, will have to submit additional documents in order to prove that they deserve a tax credit that they have already earned through years of Social Security payments. Some of these documents are impossible to obtain in the real world of the poor. That’s why Bush’s Treasury Department is asking for them."

"The Earned Income Tax Credit program began in 1975 as a work incentive for low-income families. Typically providing about $2,000 to families with children, EITC is “probably our country’s most effective program to lift working families out of poverty,” according the Maude Hurd, President of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. EITC helped almost five million people escape poverty in 1999, more than half of them children. In the twisted logic of the organized rich, that’s reason enough to bring in the IRS."

http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/otheracornwork/releases/aof.htm

What complete scum. Shouldn't surprise us though.

One of the issues that I noticed are the usury (My opinion) tax preparation scam companies that rip off the poor on these EITC claims. They advertise non-stop here in Sarasota so I can assume that they're skimming big bucks from those least able to pay...

[blm]

1. TOO important to ignore.

I hope more folks read your post.