Crowley's Bill Has IRS Finding Ways To Contact EITC Eligibles
BY JOHN TOSCANO

The 2007 tax filing season ended several weeks ago, but taxpayers can look down the road a year from now and, with a little luck and a big push from Congressmember Joseph Crowley, will find a newer, taxpayer friendly tax law on the books.

Crowley announced recently that the House of Representatives had overwhelmingly passed the Taxpayer Protection Act (HR 1677) to simplify the tax code for small family owned businesses and provide greater protections for individual tax filers from identity theft.

But a greater benefit of the bill, which is still being considered by the Senate, is ensuring that more qualifying individuals receive the tax benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) through broader notification of eligibility by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Crowley (D- Queens/The Bronx), as a member of the House Ways & Means Committee, which, among other duties, writes the tax laws, pushed for these changes very hard.

The lawmaker said one reason was some 120,000 qualifying households in New York City do not claim the EITC. These are low-income families that really can use this benefit, he said.

On the bright side, Crowley reported that the EITC has been "a great benefit to my constituents, with almost 114,000 of them claiming the credit, bringing home over $270 million."

But while this was impressive, Crowley said, "There are still almost 23,000 people in my district who are eligible but do not seek this credit, thereby missing out on more than $54 million they are owed by the federal government.

"This money would help buy the groceries, pay the rent and purchase other necessities that would ease their burden of day-to-day living."

Crowley explained that while many lowincome wage earners have taxes withheld from their paychecks, they sometimes do not file a tax return, so they miss out on receiving a refund from the IRS. They also lose out on getting the EITC, thereby losing more money.

But under HR 1677, the IRS must develop a system to find these people in its system and send them an EITC check-list. This would result in more households becoming aware of owed benefits and make filing for the EITC easier.

During this year's tax filing season, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, several City Councilmembers and taxpayer advocates waged a very energetic campaign to alert low-income taxpayers to the EITC benefit. The EITC helped many tax payers, but it is felt many more of those eligible for the EITC never filed for it.

Another provision in the bill would simplify requirements for businesses owned jointly by a husband and wife, thus permitting both husband and wife to be credited for payment of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

The bill also cracks down on misleading Web sites that seek personal information by "imitating" the IRS.