Please call your state elected officials in support of S1317.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a federal tax credit for low-income working families. The EITC offsets some or all of those families’ federal income taxes and in many cases provides a supplemental source of income to help offset other taxes, including sales and payroll taxes. The federal EITC lifts 6.6 million Americans, including 3.3 million children out of poverty each year, making it the nation’s largest and most successful anti-poverty program. Massachusetts currently matches this credit at 15% of the federal rate, and this bill proposes an increase to 20%.
This can address the extreme wealth gap and unfair tax burden in Massachusetts:
- A family with 2 parents and 2 small children in Massachusetts needs $73,000 in annual income to support them with the basics of housing, utilities, childcare, etc. at a very modest standard of living.
- 37% of Massachusetts households are in “liquid asset poverty”, meaning they are without sufficient liquid assets to subsist at the poverty level for three months in the absence of income.
- The poorest 20% of families pay more than 2 times the proportion of their income in taxes than the top 1% of families in Massachusetts.
The bill [S1317] is currently being reviewed by the Joint Committee on Revenue, with a hearing tomorrow Tuesday 2/26. Please call your elected officials in support of this important tax credit for working families. If they are on the Committee, it would be really helpful if you could reach out to them.
Thank you for making a difference!
