EITC Information for Employers
Help your employees boost their incomes at no cost to you!
What is EITC?
EITC, the Earned Income Tax Credit, sometimes called EIC is a tax credit to help people keep more of what they earned. It is a refundable federal income tax credit for low to moderate income workers and families. Congress originally approved the tax credit legislation in 1975 in part to offset the burden of social security taxes and to provide an incentive to work. If EITC exceeds the amount of taxes owed, it results in a tax refund to those who claim and qualify for the credit. To get the credit, workers must meet certain requirements and file a tax return, even if they don't owe any tax or are not required to file.
EITC Awareness Day, January 25, 2013
Partner with other employers, government agencies, social service organizations, and others in your community who have a vested interest in reaching and educating workers about EITC. Find out how you can help, send an email to partner@irs.gov. Find more information on EITC Awareness Day and how you can be a part of it on EITC Central (this site is not on irs.gov and you will receive a warning to visit this IRS-sponsored site).
How Can You Help Increase EITC Awareness?
Four out of five eligible workers claim EITC and you can help your employees join others who benefit from this important financial boost.
- Hang a poster on your bulletin board. We suggest Publication 4718, Employer Poster. Also available in Spanish.
- Have EITC flyers or brochures available for you employees or placed in their wage statements. We suggest Publications 962, Stuffer for tax year specific information. Also available in Spanish. We also have the Pub 962 EN/SP that can be used for more than one year. And/or have the Publication 3211, EITC Question and Answers on hand. Also available in Chinese, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese. Order one copy of each online here or for more than one copy, call 1-800-829-3676. See our Forms and Publications page for more ideas.
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You may want to link your employees to important EITC information:
- EITC Assistant- Your employees can use the EITC Assistant to find out if they qualify for EITC and estimate the amount. It is available in English and Spanish.
- EITC Income Limits, Maximum Credit Amounts and Tax Law Updates--Include a link to year specific information so your employees can check if they meet the income limitations and find the maximum credit amounts.
- Frequently Asked Questions about EITC--Get and share answers to the most common questions employees ask about EITC.
More Marketing and Communication Tools
Access brochures, payroll stuffers, newsletter articles, marketing ideas and more to help you communicate EITC information to your employees. Link to our Employer Page on the EITC Partner Toolkit (note your leave irs.gov to visit our toolkit and receive a notice).
You may be required to let your employees know about EITC.
- See Notice 1015, Have you told your employees about the Earned Income Tax Credit?, for more information on your responsibilities for notifying your employees about EITC, sometimes called EIC. See Publication 15, Chapter 10, to find out if you are required. For a example of information to provide your employer, see Notice 797, Possible Federal Tax Refund Due to the Earned Income Credit, EIC.
Note: The Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act of 2010 signed into law August 10, 2010 repealed the Advance EITC or AEITC. It was not be available to workers after December 31, 2010. Workers who received the payments in their paychecks during 2009 and 2010 and did not report on a tax return, need to file a tax return to claim the amount of AEITC shown on their Form W-2.
