HomeMy WebLinkAboutmoreno presentation-1Earned Income Tax Credit
Outreach Program
City of Miami
FIU's Metropolitan Center
Three Aspects of the Program:
■ Survey of Residents eligible for EITC
■ The Campaign
■ The Results
The Survey
400 Persons
November 11-14, 2002
Only people eligible for EITC Tax Credit
Poll Findings:
■ Only 26.9% of the respondents remember filing
for the earned income credit in 2001. 48.1% of
the respondents claimed they did not file for the
credit and only 25% could not recall whether or
not they applied.
■ Three quarters of the respondents did not apply
for credit did not know about the credit.
■ Non -Citizens Hispanics was the group most
likely not to apply for the credit even if they
qualify.
Poll Findings:
■ An overwhelming number of non -Citizens 83.3%
who did not apply for credit in 2001 did not know
about it.
■ The survey indicated that there is significant
reluctance among non -citizens to apply for
federal programs even if they qualify. 22.9% of
the non -citizens said they would not apply for
the EITC even if they qualified.
Recommendations
■ Public education Campaign in all
communities
■ Special outreach to non -citizens
■ Any programs to increase EITC filings
among non -citizens has to include the
network of storefront offices that provides
professionals services to the non -citizen
community.
Campaign
• Mayor's Office
• Radio Appearances
• New Conferences
• Speeches
• Mail Campaign
• Mailers to Professional Tax Preparers
• Mailers to every household in Miami
• Second citywide mailer
• Call Center
• Tri-lingual operators
• 9920 referrals
Results
■ The Program was a highly successful program
in raising public awareness and the program
should be continued next year.
■ The Internal Revenue Services reported an
eighteen percent (18%) increase in the use of its
tax assistance sites (VITA) in the city of Miami
■ According to the IRS the number of City of
Miami residents receiving EIC Tax credit
increase from 60,170 to 63,247.
Number of EIC Applicants
s WI
65,000
60,000
55,000
50,000
Number of EIC Applicants
TY 2001
60170
TY2002
63247
More Results
■ According to the IRS the increase in
monies going to low income workers in the
City of Miami from the credit increase from
$11O,000,000 to $123,5000,000.
■ The City captured a little over half of the
$26,000,0000 that the IRS estimated are
potential EITC claims in the City of Miami.