1.29.04
Single Mother of Two Earning $15,000 per Year Receives Tax Refund of Almost $7,000 As CFRC Opens 10 Money Central Sites for Free Quality Tax Return Preparation

Reaches Out to 230,000 Earned Income Tax Credit- Eligible New Yorkers

New York, NY—January 29, 2004—For the third year, the Community Food Resource Center is opening free tax preparation sites throughout New York City to provide low- income working families and individuals with free, quality tax filing and help obtaining the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and any other credits that they may be eligible for.

Last year, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, the City Council, elected officials and many community-based organizations, CFRC provided information about the EITC to more than twenty-three thousand New Yorkers and completed income tax returns free of charge for almost ten thousand. Families who earned under $35,000 in 2002 received as much as $5,257; the resulting refunds brought more than $18.5 million into the city’s economy.

Two hundred and thirty thousand New York City workers do not get the federal or state tax credits they are eligible for, a loss of half a billion dollars each year. CFRC plans to complete twenty-five thousand tax returns for eligible New Yorkers.

At CFRC’s ten Money Central sites in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens (locations and hours included in fax) clients can also open savings accounts, get direct deposit of their tax refunds, obtain Food Stamp prescreening, sign up for health insurance and in March, have their back taxes done.

To qualify for free tax help, households with children must have earned under $35,000 and households with no children must have earned less than $15,000 in 2003. For more information, three toll-free numbers are available: English, 1 866 WAGE PLUS (1-866-924-3758); Spanish, 1 866 DOLARES (1-866-365-2737); Chinese 1-888-666-6650.

Founded in 1980 to promote access to nutritious food and adequate income for all New Yorkers, today Community Food Resource Center is a leading advocate for improved government policies and programs and one of the city’s foremost providers of direct service in these vital areas: emergency food assistance, Food Stamp access, nutrition services and income policy.