Accounting Aid Society has been awarded a grant from the AARP Foundation to explore new pathways to engage underserved senior populations with the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Increased eligibility of EITC has been shown to reduce income inequality and receiving the EITC has been linked to improved health outcomes.
The EITC has expanded criteria for 2021 that may benefit area families:
- There is no age cap for 2021;
- You are not required to have dependent children;
- Childless workers from age 19 to 24 (who are not half-time or full-time students) and claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax return are eligible
- Qualifying children must be biological or adopted children, grandchildren, younger siblings, and nieces and nephews who live with you at least half of the year and be under age 19, be under 24 and a full time student, or be permanently disabled
Accounting Aid Society has partnered with Wayne State University’s Hub for Evaluation and Learning (HEAL) Detroit to learn about the barriers and facilitators to individuals filing their taxes and gaining access to tax benefits, such as the expanded EITC credit. We ask that your organization consider participating in our survey and utilizing our available toolkit (in Arabic, English and Spanish) to inform your clients about the benefits of the expanded EITC eligibility and benefits, as well as invite them to tell us more about what may be preventing their friends or family from filing their taxes.
Access our available toolkits (with introductory email, infosheets and social media campaigns) below.
We invite you to participate in our survey and to share it widely with others, particularly individuals aged 55+ who might benefit from the 2021 expanded EITC tax credit, and other organizations like yours who serve this population. For survey questions, please contact Dr. Tricia Miranda-Hartsuff at triciamh@wayne.edu.
Invitation Letter – We invite you to participate in our survey, and to forward this link and/or download and send the invitation letter below to relevant partner organizations.
Toolkit – English
Infosheet – A one-pager and larger font two-pager are included as part of the toolkit to describe the benefits of the EITC credit, and to provide the link to our survey. Please download and share / print and post the infosheets below for relevant stakeholders.
Infosheet – Large Font Two-Pager
Social media campaign options describing the benefits of the EITC credit, and opportunities to file 2021 taxes are provided below. We request you download and post the campaigns to your social media accounts, along with the link to our survey so that we can learn more about the barriers and facilitators to tax filing among residents in Southeast Michigan.
Toolkit – Arabic
Toolkit – Spanish