Low-income Families Who Use Paid Tax Preparers, by State

[Elrod]

About 55 percent of Earned Income Tax Credit recipients reported using a paid tax preparer last year. The breakdown, by state:

State Percentage of EITC recipients who use paid tax preparers Alabama 63 Alaska 36 Arizona 51 Arkansas 60 California 66 Colorado 47 Connecticut 50 Delaware 40 District of Columbia 52 Florida 57 Georgia 57 Hawaii 50 Idaho 46 Illinois 55 Indiana 47 Iowa 57 Kansas 50 Kentucky 59 Louisiana 56 Maine 41 Maryland 52 Massachusetts 55 Michigan 54 Minnesota 51 Mississippi 60 Missouri 50 Montana 47 Nebraska 51 Nevada 56 New Hampshire 39 New Jersey 66 New Mexico 51 New York 68 North Carolina 52 North Dakota 49 Ohio 44 Oklahoma 53 Oregon 38 Pennsylvania 49 Rhode Island 60 South Carolina 56 South Dakota 49 Tennessee 52 Texas 55 Utah 48 Vermont 43 Virginia 44 Washington 39 West Virginia 46 Wisconsin 48 Wyoming 44 United States 55

Source: Internal Revenue Service

[BulldogTom]

California promotes the EITC.  It runs PSA's on the radio and TV to encourage people to get it.  The ads are very deceptive.  "If you made up to 56 thousand, you could get a credit of up to 8 thousand."  Like the way they use the top number for income qualification and the highest credit amount in the ad.

 

I heard a commentator on a news show one time talking about the strategy, how the state promotes EITC as a way of bringing federal tax dollars back to the state to stimulate the economy.

 

Tom

Newark, CA

Edited March 24, 2015 by BulldogTom

[Terry D EA]

A better report would have shown the percentage of EITC returns prepared by the big tax mills along with the percentage of low income families that were scalped on the fees for using these preparers. Who is this really boosting revenue for? Federal dollars coming back into the State to stimulate the economy or stimulating the bank accounts of the tax mills