Free Tax Help for Montgomery County Residents Earning $57,000 or Less
 Appointments for FREE tax assistance are now available for Montgomery County residents earning $57,000 or less through the Community Action Agency's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Safe, VIRTUAL services available through April 15th, with IRS-certified preparers assisting taxpayers through Zoom. DHHS staff and partners are encouraged to help clients, especially those with access barriers, to schedule an appointment online. Look for the “Book Now” button to schedule a virtual appointment. Note: customers with appointments will receive a call from VITA to orient them to the requirements and process for their "Zoom" appointment before they meet with a preparer. County residents may also call: 240-777-1123, or they may call 3-1-1 or MD Relay (711). Please request special accommodations by calling at least three business days in advance.
The VITA program can help people with current ITINs file taxes. However, at this time we are not renewing ITINs or assisting with applications for new ITINs.
As part of the County's Department of Health & Human Services Office of Community Affairs, the Community Action Agency is Montgomery County’s designated anti-poverty program. Through its outreach and partnerships, the agency works to ensure that VITA is accessible to working people eligible for the Earned-Income Tax Credit, as well as limited-English speaking taxpayers, seniors, and people with disabilities. Multilingual fliers are online in Amharic, Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Taxpayers may learn about other free tax options, including the RSVP/AARP Tax Aide Program, serving low-to-moderate income county taxpayers, with special attention to seniors. Locate other nonprofit, community-based VITA sites in Montgomery County by visiting the CASHBACK website (https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Cashback/) or call 311.
January 29th was the nation’s 15th Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day, and Montgomery County is spreading the word about the EITC and Community Action Agency's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which provides free tax help for County residents living in households earning $57,000 or less in 2020.
By providing tax credits to lower-income working adults, including single people without children, the EITC reduces poverty, especially for those earning very low-wages: in 2018, the EITC was found to reduce the severity of poverty for 16.5 million people, six million of whom were children. VITA especially targets newly eligible taxpayers, including those with Limited English Proficiency, as well as low-income seniors and people with disabilities needing free tax help, and can serve people who file with an ITINs (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number).
“The EITC and other refundable tax credits provide critically needed financial support to low- to moderate-income families, so claiming the EITC is an especially important economic resource for families during the COVID-19 pandemic," said County Executive Marc Elrich. "This is especially true because Montgomery County increases its value by matching Maryland’s EITC through its version, the Working Families Income Supplement, which is distributed later in the summer.”
“Whether people use free or paid preparers, people can save more money because Congress passed a new ‘lookback rule’ to allow workers who earned less in 2020 than in 2019, to use either their 2019 or 2020 income on their taxes—whichever gets them the most money back," Elrich continued. "I appreciate that businesses and community partners are helping to spread the word about the EITC, and I urge our neighbors to keep their money by accessing free tax help through the Community Action Agency's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, with safe, virtual 'Zoom' appointments this year, or by making an appointment with other free initiatives, including RSVP’s partnership with the AARP.”
Since 20% of eligible households fail to claim the EITC, Community Action’s VITA program, part of the County's Department of Health & Human Services, engages in outreach to raise awareness with its network of nonprofit and public partners. Through the generous funding of United Way of the National Capital Area's VITA Challenge Grant to our partner CAFE Montgomery (Coalition for the Advancement of Financial Education), a text campaign will be launching later this month to raise awareness of safe and free tax services. Public Results, which partnered with the County's Census 2020 Full Count efforts, is leading the effort, sending text messages to residents living in communities with high concentrations of residents with low-incomes. The text campaign complements its nationally award-winning multilingual outreach campaign, with fliers and Ride-On ads with targeting taxpayers speaking Amharic, Chinese, English, French, Korean, and Spanish.
To make a VITA appointment, please go to https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Cashback/ or call 240-777-1123,or 311. The website and 311 also have resources for other free tax partners. To request special accommodations, please call 240-777-1123 or MD Relay (711) at least three business days in advance.
 From our partners at the Maryland CASH Campaign (https://cashmd.org/):
The RELIEF Act of 2021 is an emergency economic impact and tax relief package that will provide more than $1 billion for Maryland working families, small businesses, and those who have lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The RELIEF Act includes direct economic impact payments for low to moderate income Maryland taxpayers who claimed and received the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on their 2019 Maryland State Tax Return with the following annual earnings:
- $50,954 ($56,844 married filing jointly) with three or more qualifying children;
- $47,440 ($53,330 married filing jointly) with two qualifying children;
- $41,756 ($47,646 married filing jointly) with one qualifying child;
- $15,820 ($21,710 married filing jointly) with no qualifying children
No application is necessary to receive this relief. Beginning Tuesday, February 16, Comptroller Peter Franchot and the staff of the Comptroller’s Office will begin processing more than $200 million in payments to our most vulnerable families, people stuck awaiting decisions on their unemployment insurance claims, and struggling businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Individual or joint filers who qualified for and claimed the EITC in Tax Year 2019 will receive direct stimulus payments of the following amounts:
- $300 to individual tax filers;
- $500 to spouses who filed a joint return, for a surviving spouse, or head of household
Payment will be sent by either mail or direct deposit to the bank account provided on the 2019 tax return. These payments will not be offset by other state debts that would normally cause a tax offset to a Maryland tax refund, with the exception of a child support judgment. However, economic impact payments are not protected from garnishment by creditors once the money is deposited into your bank account.
Taxpayers can verify their eligibility for a relief payment and verify the status of their payment on the Comptroller of Maryland’s website: www.Marylandtaxes.gov/RELIEFAct.
 From IRS.gov, IRS Newswire issue IR-2021-28
Educators can now deduct out-of-pocket expenses for COVID-19 protective items
WASHINGTON – Eligible educators can deduct unreimbursed expenses for COVID-19 protective items to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the classroom. COVID-19 protective items include, but are not limited to:
- face masks;
- disinfectant for use against COVID-19;
- hand soap;
- hand sanitizer;
- disposable gloves;
- tape, paint or chalk to guide social distancing;
- physical barriers (for example, clear plexiglass);
- air purifiers; and
- other items recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be used for the prevention of the spread of COVID-19.
Rev. Proc. 2021-15, issued today, provides guidance related to educators and their expenses under the COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020, which was enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. The new law clarifies that unreimbursed expenses paid or incurred after March 12, 2020, by eligible educators for protective items to stop the spread of COVID-19 qualify for the educator expense deduction.
The educator expense deduction rules permit eligible educators to deduct up to $250 of qualifying expenses per year ($500 if married filing jointly and both spouses are eligible educators, but not more than $250 each).
Eligible educators include any individual who is a kindergarten through grade 12 teacher, instructor, counselor, principal, or aide in a school for at least 900 hours during a school year.
This deduction is for expenses paid or incurred during the tax year. Taxpayers claim the deduction on Form 1040, Form 1040-SR or Form 1040-NR (attach Schedule 1 (Form 1040) ).
For additional information regarding the deduction for certain expenses of an eligible educator, see the Instructions for Form 1040 and Form 1040-SR or the Instructions for Form 1040-NR.
For more information about this, the COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020 and other tax changes, visit IRS.gov.
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