West Central Minnesota Communities Action, Inc.

West Central Minnesota Communities Action is dedicated to reducing the effects of poverty and helping people to achieve self-sufficiency, and improving the quality of rural life. In keeping with this mission, WCMCA is providing free tax preparation to low-income individuals and families at tax sites in Elbow Lake and Alexandria.

A major goal of the project is to assist people in accessing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). One out of four families in the region do not file for the EITC. The average EITC return of $1,440 per family could mean a total increase of $1,834,908 annually to families in Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens and Traverse Counties (West Central Initiative figure). Such a figure could make quite an impact on local economies as well!

To see if you qualify for the EITC, please follow this link www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=130102,00.html and click on the words: "Tax Year 2007 English" to access the IRS's EITC Assistant. Follow the instructions to determine if you qualify.

Therefore, WCMCA has started working with AccountAbility Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Revenue, United Way of Douglas and Pope Counties, West Central Initiative, and the Minnesota Community Action Partnership to offer tax clinic sites in two counties in the five county area.

WCMCA Tax Clinic Sites and Other Contacts

WCMCA Tax Clinics offer tax preparation services for free to customers who earn less that $40,000 per year. These services are by appointment only, so customers must call 218-685-4486 or 800-492-4805 and speak to Linda to set up an appointment at either site. Tax Clinic volunteers do not prepare self-employment or small business tax returns. WCMCA offers Tax Clinics in the following areas:

Grant County
West Central MN Communities Action (VITA Site)
411 Industrial Park Boulevard
Elbow Lake, MN 56531

Contact Linda for an appointment at 218-685-4486 or 800-492-4805
E-filing available
Open Thursdays 8 am - 9 pm January 31 to April 15th, 2008.

Douglas County
WCMCA, Inc. Alexandria Site
700 Cedar St
Alexandria, MN 56308

Contact Linda for an appointment at 218-685-4486 or 800-492-4805
E-filing available
Open Thursdays 12 noon - 8 pm and Saturdays 12 noon - 4:00 pm from January 31 to April 15th, 2008.

For additional information on Free Tax Preparation sites, contact:

2-1-1 Minnesota Information and Referral 211 or 1-800-543-7709 or www.211unitedway.org
Free Service - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Multi-lingual lines: Available Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Spanish, Russian, Hmong, Laotian and Vietnamese

Minnesota Department of Revenue
1-651-297-3724 or www.taxes.state.mn.us
Minnesota Tax Help Line 1-651-296-3781

AARP Tax Aide Sites 1-888-227-7669 or www.aarp.org/taxaide
The Web site allows you to sort by zip code, county, state, city and distance from any location. Agencies may want to print a list of sites for the cities/counties they serve for their staff.

AccountAbility Minnesota Sites
1-651-287-0187 or www.accountabilitymn.org/

Internal Revenue Service IRS.gov
1-800-829-1040 or www.irs.gov

News from WCMCA Tax Clinics: What is the Earned Income Credit?

The EIC is a special tax benefit for working people who earn low or moderate incomes. It has several important purposes: to reduce the tax burden on these workers, to supplement wages, and to provide a work incentive.

Workers who qualify for the EIC and file a federal tax return can get back some or all of the federal income tax that was taken out of their pay during the last year. tHey may also get extra cash back from the IRS. Even workers whose earnings are too small to owe income tax can get the EIC. What’s more, the EIC offsets any additional taxes workers may owe, such as payroll taxes.

Who can get the Earned Income Credit (EIC) and how much is it worth?

Single or married people who worked full-time or part-time at some point in 2007 can qualify for the EIC, depending on their income.

Workers who were raising one child in their home and had income of less than $33,241 (or $35,241 for married workers) in 2007 can get an EIC of up to $2,853.
Workers who were raising more than one child in their home and had income of less than $37,783 (or $39,783 for married workers) in 2007 can get an EIC of up to $4,716.
Workers who were not raising children in their home, between the ages of 25 and 64 on December 31, 2007, and had income below $12,590 (or $14,590 for married workers) can get an EIC up to $428.

Workers with investment income exceeding $2,800 in 2007 may not claim the EIC.

What is the Child and Dependent Care Credit?

The Child and Dependent Care Credit is a tax benefit that helps families pay for child care they need in order to work or to look for work. They credit is also available to families that must pay for the care of a spouse or an adult dependent who is incapable of caring for himself or herself. The Child and Dependent Care Credit can reduce the amount of federal income tax a family pays in two ways. For families that pay income taxes but do not owe taxes at the end of the year because they have fully paid the taxes for the year through payroll withholding, this credit can give them back some of all of the federal taxes that were taken out of the parents’ paychecks during the year. For families that end up owing taxes at the end of the year, the credit can lower the amount the must pay to the IRS. For the year 2007, parents can claim as much as $3,000 in dependent care expenses per child (up to $6,000 for two or more children). Please note, however, that families earning too little to pay federal income tax cannot use this credit. In this way, the Child and Dependent Care Credit differs from the Earned Income Credit (EIC). The EIC can be claimed by families earning too little to pay income tax.

Who is eligible for the Child and Dependent Care Credit?

Families can claim this credit if:

They paid for care in 2007 for a qualifying child under age 13 claimed as a dependent, or a spouse or dependent not able to care for himself or herself, who lived with the family for more than half the year, AND
They needed the child or dependent care to work or look for work (in a two-parent family, both spouses must have needed the child or dependent care to work or to look for work unless one spouse was a full-time student or unable to care for himself or herself), AND
The amount they paid for dependent care in 2007 was less than their income for the year. If taxpayers are married and filing a joint tax return they must have paid less for care than the income of the spouse with the lowest earnings. There are special rules for calculating the income of a spouse who was a full-time student or disabled.

Note: In general, the credit can only be claimed if a child is claimed as a tax dependent, but there are special rules for children of divorced or separated parents. For information about these rules call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 or the National Women’s Law Center at 1-202-588-5180.

Information obtained from the “Make Tax Time Pay” series from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. For more tax information on this and other issues, check out the IRS website at www.irs.gov . For information on WCMCA Tax Clinic locations and times, contact WCMCA at 1-800-492-4805.

What is the Child Tax Credit?

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a federal tax credit worth up to $1,000 in 2007 for each qualifying child under age 17 claimed on the worker’s tax return. While the CTC has been in effect since 1998, Congress changed the credit in 2001 to make it available to millions more low- and moderate-income working families and provided many families a larger CTC than they could have received in the past. This “Additional CTC” is refundable, meaning some families can get the credit even if they owe no income tax.

For more information on WCMCA Tax Clinics, please contact:
Robbie Stier
West Central MN Communities Action, Inc.
411 Industrial Park Boulevard
Elbow Lake, MN 56531
Phone: 1-218-685-4486 or 1-800-492-4805 Ext. 137
Fax: 1-218-685-6741
E-mail: robbies@wcmca.org

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