The “Earned Income Tax Credit”

The “Earned Income Tax Credit” also-known-as the EITC is a credit meant to help those who make very little income. The government offers those cititzens a chance to keep a little bit of extra money in their pockets by lowering their tax obligations.

However, there are a few stipulations to receiving this credit. You must, of course, have a valid U.S. social security number and have earned income for the year, whether it be in self or regular employment. You must also be filing as an individual (those who are married but filing separately do not qualify) and not be claimed as a dependant on anyone else’s return. Most importantly, you CAN NOT file any forms having to do with foreign income, such as the 2555 or 2555-EZ.

You also must be within all of the EITC thresholds:

Earned income and adjusted gross income (AGI) must each be less than:

• $38,646 ($41,646 married filing jointly) with two or more qualifying children;
• $33,995 ($36,995 married filing jointly) with one qualifying child;
• $12,880 ($15,880 married filing jointly) with no qualifying children.

Tax Year 2008 maximum credit:

• $4,824 with two or more qualifying children;
• $2,917 with one qualifying child;
• $438 with no qualifying children.

Investment income must be $2,950 or less for the year.

The maximum Advance Earned Income Tax Credit for 2008 an employer is allowed to provide to employee’s pay is $1,750. (numbers from the IRS website)

There are so many different credits, make sure to check out which ones could save you.

The “Make Work Pay Credit”…what it means for you

We have all heard the word “stimulus” and a lot of us get a little happy feeling inside knowing that you are going to be getting back some of your hard earned money. This term is getting thrown around a lot, especially when it comes to our new President, Barack Obama. This week (January 12th) the House Democrats have been working on an 825 billion dollar bill called the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill” that will have a mixture of spending and tax relief for U.S. citizens. Since taxes is what we do here, we are going to focus on the most important piece for you, the average income consumer, and that piece of this bill is called the “Make Work Pay Credit.”

Whether or not you think so, you have heard of the “Make Work Pay Credit,” although maybe not by name. This concept was one of the primary focus’ of Obama’s Presidential campaign. At this time, the Democrats are negotiating $145 billion to go toward this program to help low and middle income Americans. Basically, as long as you are a working citizen, you are entitled to $500 per individual and $1,000 for couples in tax credit. This credit will be paid out in two ways. Either workers will have the amount added to their paychecks or their income tax return at the end of the year. Now, this credit may not be available until 2009 or 2010 and only those who make less than $75K a year are eligible ($150K for couples).
Here’s the kicker. The “Make Work Pay Credit” will also be refundable. That means that even those people who do not make enough money to file taxes would receive a credit.

There are a few other aspects of the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill” other than the stimulus checks too. They are talking of increasing the refundable portion of the “Child Tax Credit” meaning you will receive more money per child as well as attempting to expand the “Earned Income Tax Credit” which reduces the amount of taxes that low income citizens have to pay.

I don’t know about you, but all this sounds good to me! More money in your pocket means more ends met.