Taxpayer Opportunity Network Newsletter: January 2024

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Celebrate Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day with Fellow TON Members on January 26

The EITC is the largest anti-poverty program and just last year provided workers and families $64 million to put towards their bills, saving for a rainy day and more! This Friday, Prosperity Now invites you to join us and our Taxpayer Opportunity Network across social media to lift up this vital and life-changing tax credit by using #EITCAwarenessDay and tagging @ProsperityNow on all your posts!

Prosperity Now’s Taxpayer Opportunity Network (TON) has created an EITC Awareness Day Toolkit [[link removed]] with the resources and tools you need to reach out and spread the word about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the incredible impact the country's most successful anti-poverty program has in your community and across the country.

Download the 2024 EITC Awareness Day Toolkit [[link removed]] Is It Filing Season Already? Kick off the 2024 Tax Season with TON!

Let’s start the filing season off right...TOGETHER! The Taxpayer Opportunity Network at Prosperity Now is thrilled to invite you to our annual Tax Season Kickoff webinar [[link removed]]. We sure hope you can join us next Tuesday, January 30, 2023, from 2:00 – 3:30 PM EST.

This webinar is an opportunity to share some of your thoughts and perspectives directly with our expert panel and learn more about strategies, tools, and resources to conquer your tax season challenges. Personnel from SPEC, Prosperity Now, and expert practitioners in the VITA/TCE field will be there to share their perspectives on the filing season and hear from you!

Next week’s speakers include:

Don Dill, IRS SPEC Kim Manuel, TaxSlayer Craig Smith, TaxSlayer Roxy Caines, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Join us on Tuesday, January 30, 2023 at 2:00 PM EST [[link removed]] for this exciting learning opportunity. We encourage you to bring a friend or colleague!

Register for the 2024 Tax Season Kickoff [[link removed]] Building Bridges in Detroit Lakes, MN with VITA: An Interview with MAHUBE-OTWA

In September, Prosperity Now launched the second iteration of the VITA Leadership Institute, through generous support from the Wells Fargo Foundation. The VITA Leadership Institute (VLI) aims to train a diverse class of ten emerging VITA leaders to build their capacity to expand and scale free, high-quality, and racially equitable tax preparation services for low-income taxpayers in their communities. Over the next year, we are working with our cohort to build the VITA leadership capacity through peer learning calls, one-on-one individualized technical assistance, and support for local EITC Awareness Day events, which will all culminate in a digital toolkit of lessons learned that we share with the entire Taxpayer Opportunity Network. This month, we are spotlighting one of our cohort members, Lisa Stroschein, Becker County Senior Coordinator at MAHUBE-OTWA Community Action Partnership in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Read the full interview here [[link removed]] and learn more about the organization below!

Read Our Full Conversation with MAHUBE-OTWA CAP [[link removed]] Help Us Keep the Child Tax Credit Expansion Front and Center

We have a real chance for Congress to give families and kids the support they need this year – and our lawmakers need to hear from us now. Major players in Congress are working to pass legislation around expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Children and families need your support for this legislation to pass!

The Child Tax Credit expansions that were in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 made a significant difference on BIPOC communities and reduced overall child poverty. By the end of 2021,  3.7 million children were kept out of poverty [[link removed]], including 163,000 Asian American children, 737,000 Black children and 1.4 million Latino children. In 2022, the US  Census Bureau released data [[link removed]] showing the 2021 expansions in the Child Tax Credit led to  a record 46% decline in child poverty [[link removed]]—the lowest recorded level of child poverty in recent history. Join Prosperity Now and tell your representatives in Congress to keep Child Tax Credit expansion front and center [[link removed]].

You can read Prosperity Now’s statement on the CTC here [[link removed]].

Ask Congress to Prioritize the Child Tax Credit in 2024 [[link removed]] VITA-Train is Back for TY 2023!

As your VITA programs head into tax season, the Taxpayer Opportunity Network is proud to present the fourth year of our training tool for VITA volunteers, known as VITA-Train [[link removed]]! The VITA-Train is a modular training program designed to seamlessly supplement your existing training regimen or serve as a stand-alone online training for volunteers. So, whether your program only needs a few modules, or the whole package, you’re welcome to share, download or embed the training modules, reference materials and recordings to create a seamless training seminar in whatever way best meets your needs.

These modules were reviewed and informed by members of the Taxpayer Opportunity Network - we thank them for their work and continued partnership on the updates to the VITA-Train. We encourage you to review the Acknowledgements section of this page to see which Network members helped out this year!

Link & Learn Tips

Are your VITA volunteers experiencing some challenges on the new Link & Learn site? Here is some guidance from our partners at IRS SPEC:

Clearing your cache Attempt on a different computer  Restart computers  Change internet browsers

After all of the above steps have been attempted and the issue persists, VITA Site Coordinators can report the issue to SPEC at [email protected], who will then contact the vendor to coordinate a fix. Please provide the specific volunteer's name and email address so that their account can be identified.

Resources and Publications

About 16 Million Children in Low-Income Families Would Gain in First Year of Bipartisan Child Tax Credit Expansion [[link removed]] | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

CBPP explains that the bipartisan Child Tax Credit expansion in the tax bill negotiated by Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Jason Smith would be in effect for 3 years and would benefit about 16 million children in the first year.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Race and Tax Policy in 2023 Legislative Sessions [[link removed]] | ITEP

ITEP examines the racial implications of 2023 state tax policies and found that more than one-third of states made strides this year to improve their tax systems, with 11 states creating CTCs or EITCs and 13 states enhancing them.

Serving Those Who Served: How Claiming the EITC Can Support Veteran’s Financial Wellness [[link removed]] |TCWF

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently highlighted the EITC as a critical tool for preventing homelessness among veterans.

How generous are each state’s safety net programs? [[link removed]] | Brookings

Brookings developed an index of each state’s safety net programs, including tax credits such as the EITC and CTC.

Policy Brief: Understanding the Reach of the California Earned Income Tax Credit [[link removed]] | Public Policy Institute of California

This policy brief highlights California’s EITC program (CalEITC) for state polickymakers, who can benefit from knowing more about where and when the CalEITC and other credits are claimed in order to improve the program.

VITA/TCE Blog [[link removed]] | TaxSlayer

Did you know TaxSlayer hosts a blog for VITA and TCE sites? Check it out for relevant updates during the tax season.

Tax Credits in the News

Governor Shapiro announces expansion of child and dependent care tax credit (Pennsylvania) [[link removed]] | CBS News Pittsburgh

What to know about the new 2024 tax cuts for Connecticut residents [[link removed]] (including an increase in the state’s EITC) | NEWS8 WTNH

Events and Opportunities

Webinar: Tax Time & EITC: Bankable Moments and Resources for Consumers [[link removed]] | January 23, 2024, 1-2 p.m. ET | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Webinar: 2024 Tax Season Kickoff [[link removed]] | January 30, 2024, 2-3:30 p.m. ET | Prosperity Now

1200 G Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC xxxxxx

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