In the News
Down to the Wire for Tax Aid
Help's Available to Take Advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit
Philadelphia Daily News, April 8, 2004
HAS LAPTOP, WILL TRAVEL...
to businesses to help lower-income employees file their taxes for free.
In the process, Jacquie Bratton-Patterson and her colleagues at the Reinvestment Fund have helped 371 tax filers claim all the money to which they're entitled - money they may not have known about if they had prepared their own taxes, or even paid a commercial tax preparer to do it.
It's all part of the Campaign for Working Families, a coalition of community groups that is in its second year of staffing Voluntary Income Tax Assistance sites in Philadelphia.
The goal is to expand use of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the wage supplement for lower-income workers that averages $1,709 here but can be as high as $4,204, depending on income and the number of children living with the worker.
The VITA sites also provide referrals for public benefits like subsidized health insurance, child care and food stamps - as well as courses in financial literacy.
Filing for the EITC can be complicated.
It was only through detailed questions posed by Bratton-Patterson, who has prepared nearly 200 tax returns herself, that one worker learned she could get a much higher credit than she thought.
Bratton-Patterson showed the worker that she could claim her 23-year-old daughter, a college student living at home, as a dependent, thereby increasing her EITC by $2,000.
In other cases, Bratton-Patterson helped tax filers get credits they might not have known about - for education, child care and retirement.
With its mobile tax preparation service, TRF takes its show on the road, but there are 16 VITA sites in the city, some of which will be open until the tax filing deadline a week from today.
To find out if you are eligible for free tax preparation or to find the VITA site nearest you, call 215-686-2599 or log on to www.gpuac.org.