Hey, Baltimoreans, can you use $29 million?
That's roughly how much city residents will forfeit this year by not claiming the earned income tax credit.
The federal tax credit has been putting hundreds and even thousands of dollars into the hands of the working poor since 1975. And this is money you can get refunded to you, even if your wages are so low you don't have to file a tax return.
Last year, 22 million workers claimed the credit and received nearly $44 billion. About 330,000 of those are Marylanders who pocketed $615 million.
Those are big numbers, but the Internal Revenue Service estimates that up to 8 million other workers across the country are leaving more than $10 billion on the table by not claiming the credit.
The IRS is trying to get out the word.
Why do so many fail to claim their money?
IRS officials suspect that taxpayers, especially first-time filers, may not be aware of the credit.
Language barriers might prevent some from claiming it. Or workers figure they're ineligible because they don't make enough to have to file a tax return, says David Williams, the IRS director of refundable credits.
Single people without children often don't know the credit is available to them, adds Joanna Smith-Ramani, director of the Baltimore CASH Campaign. Or workers who lost a job might not realize that their annual income is now low enough to qualify for the credit, she says.
If you are not sure you can claim the earned income tax credit, it's worth checking out.
The maximum credit is $428 for those without children, $2,853 for those with one child, and $4,716 for those with two or more.
And Marylanders can get an even bigger refund. The state offers an additional credit to residents receiving the federal credit. Marylanders with at least one dependent could receive a state refund worth 20 percent of their federal credit. (Next filing season, that amount goes up to 25 percent and the credit will be expanded to include individuals without children, Smith-Ramani says.)
So who is eligible for the federal credit? Here are some of the requirements:
You must have earnings from a job. You need a valid Social Security number for yourself, spouse or any children that you're claiming for the credit. Your investment income can't exceed $2,900, and you cannot file a tax return as "married filing separately."
