The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the country's single most effective poverty reduction program. Every year the EITC moves approximately five million families above the Federal poverty line. At the same time, low income working families are losing additional billions of potential tax credit dollars. In 2001 an estimated 3.5 million families qualified for the EITC but did not claim it. In response to the billions of dollars being lost to low income working families, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) launched a multi-faceted campaign in three pilot cities that involved: 1) extensive door-to-door canvassing to inform families of free tax preparation sites, screen families for potential EITC eligibility 2) managing free tax preparation sites, 3) organized direct action campaigns against the predatory lending practices of H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt.

Research questions included: Was the canvass outreach successful in getting families to turn-out to free tax prep sites? How successful were the ACORN free tax sites at helping families claim the EITC? Did ACORN's direct action campaign affect the predatory lending practices of H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt?

Method

Methods included interviews with tax preparers, canvassers, administrators, & clients of the free tax prep sites, IRS Officials, ACORN members, and community stakeholders; a telephone survey (N = 1034); and participant observation. We also analyzed administrative data from the IRS, tax sites, and canvass statistics.

Results

During the 2003 tax season ACORN prepared taxes (in the three pilot cities) at no charge for 3850 families who collected a total of $5 million in EITC and other tax credits. In two pilot cities ACORN prepared more tax returns than any other free sites in their respective cities. IRS Officials claimed ACORN tax sites were extremely successful. Fifty-five percent of clients at the free tax sites found out about free tax prep from the door-to-door canvass. Clients of ACORN's free tax sites found the service to be professional, efficient, and friendly. December and January direct actions on over 60 H&R Block offices forced the company to address ACORN's goal of lowering fees and providing more upfront disclosure of the rates charged for rapid refunds. ACORN's efforts to reform predatory lending practices attracted national media coverage from news programs such as ABC's Nightline, NBC's Dateline, and PBS's The News Hour.

Implications

Fighting poverty is one of the oldest missions of social work. ACORN's pilot project appeared highly successful at increasing the uptake of the EITC and increasing the incomes of low income working families. The authors will present an "evidence based practice" model on the findings of this study to inform further EITC outreach and tax preparation. Our findings concur with recent studies on the importance of reintegrating social action models into the community organization equation. (Fisher and Shragge, 2000).

References

Fisher, R., & Shragge, E. (2000). Challenging community organizing: Facing the 21st Century. Journal of Community Practice, 8(3), 1-20.