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Admonishing the United States Department of Treasury, acting by and through the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue (DOR), acting by and through its secretary, to provide annual, plain, English and Spanish notice to eligible Philadelphia taxpayers of the availability of earned income tax credits, advanced earned income tax credits, and similar benefits prior to the April 15 deadline for the filing of tax returns.
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WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission has found that an estimated $76.5 million in tax credits available under state and federal income tax earned income credit programs were not claimed by low and moderate income Philadelphia households; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia is a community that has been directly and negatively impacted by the recent recession and endemic problems of job and population loss; and
WHEREAS, It is imperative that the citizens of the City of Philadelphia are enabled to maximize the benefit of earned tax credit and like programs; and
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Tax Reform commission estimates that at least 45,000 Philadelphia households are eligible for such state and federal income tax relief; and
WHEREAS, In 2002, the IRS sent notices to only 958,000 taxpayers (a miniscule percentage of potentially eligible taxpayers nationwide), advising them of the existence of federal earned income tax credits and to the knowledge of this Council has never followed up with even that level of inadequate notice since 2002; and
WHEREAS, The Commonwealth's sister State of Delaware requires its income taxing authority to notify welfare recipients of the availability of earned income tax credits; and
WHEREAS, The State of Illinois requires employers to notify qualifying employees of the availability of earned income tax credits; and
WHEREAS, The State of New York requires its income taxing ...
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