AARP Foundation Tax-Aide provides tax preparation assistance to anyone, free of charge, with a focus on taxpayers who are over 50 and have low to moderate income.
With tax season fast approaching, AARP-Tax Aide volunteers like me are studying the ever-changing tax laws.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is money, hundreds to thousands of dollars, that is sent by the federal government to qualifying low-income workers.
In 2022, the law was changed to exclude workers over age 65 from receiving the EITC.
Many elderly people eke out a precarious existence on meager Social Security.
To make ends meet, they take jobs which are often low income.
I have prepared tax returns for elders up to age 92 who brought W-2 forms showing their earnings.
The EITC is important to them.
It’s unfair to arbitrarily withhold the EITC above age 65.
During 2020 and 2021, COVID-related laws extended the EITC to qualifying workers without an upper age limit, but now the age limit of 65 has been imposed.
This affects many of the 11 million workers over age 65.
Please write to our congressional representatives to reinstate the EITC for working people over age 65.
Wendy Goldberg
Sequim