Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is trying to spread the word about tax credits for low-income Americans.
IRS records show that 27 million people claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit last year. Close to one million of them were in Ohio, where households got an average of $2,400 each. The credit typically is available to taxpayers making less than about $53,000 a year. But Sen. Brown says one in five eligible taxpayers fails to claim the credit, and free help is available.
“The IRS Free File program is available at IRS.gov: Commercial partners of the IRS offer free brand-name software to individuals and families with incomes of less than $62,000.”
Brown's office has put together a map of sites for free tax help under the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, or VITA.
“The criticism I hear of EITC is, oftentimes the forms aren’t filled out properly. So I would just encourage people to use the VITA sites.”
Last year, Brown pushed to make permanent extensions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, parts of which would have expired by 2017.
