Jan. 31, 2023 - Epoch Times
08:46
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| Good evening and welcome to everyone's favorite time of the year, tax season, otherwise known as the time when the federal government fleeces us for everything we're worth. | |
| But fear not, because the IRS has just issued a very important statement. | |
| Specifically, just three days ago, the IRS issued a reminder to tens of millions of Americans urging them to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit. | |
| This is a tax credit that last year averaged about $2,000 per person. | |
| It's a tax credit that quite literally tens of millions of Americans are eligible for. | |
| But it's also a tax credit that about 20% of the people who qualify for don't claim. | |
| 20%. | |
| When you actually run the numbers, it means that due to people not claiming this particular tax credit, the government gets to keep an additional $12 billion of our dollars, which is a lot of Ukrainian tanks. | |
| And so, let me break down what this tax credit actually is, who qualifies for it, as well as how you can make sure that you claim your money from the government. | |
| And I hope that if you appreciate content like this, you do take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this video, as well as this information, can reach ever more people. | |
| Now, the tax credit in question is called the Earned Income Tax Credit, otherwise known as the EITC. It was created by Congress back in the year 1975 as essentially a way to help Americans offset the cost of paying into Social Security. | |
| And from then, meaning from 1975 up until today, the earned income tax credit has only grown larger and larger, both in terms of the amount of money you get back, but also in terms of who qualifies for it. | |
| Now, the EITC is what's known as a refundable tax credit, meaning that if the credit you qualify for is greater than what you actually owe in taxes, you will get the additional amount back as a refund. | |
| Basically, the IRS will cut you a check and mail it to you. | |
| In terms of who qualifies for it, here's a list of some of the most important criteria that you must meet. | |
| First of all, you must have earned some form of income, from either employment at a job, from self-employment, from doing a side gig, or from almost anything else. | |
| Basically, you need to have earned some money last year. | |
| If you made absolutely no money, then you unfortunately don't qualify. | |
| However, you do have to meet certain income limits, because if you made too much money, you won't qualify either. | |
| We'll get to the specific amounts in a moment. | |
| Then, you must also meet residency requirements in America by being either a US citizen or a legal alien. | |
| Then, you, your spouse, and or your kids must all have valid social security numbers. | |
| Then, your filing status must be either single, married, filing jointly, head of household, or qualifying widower. | |
| Notably, if you are married filing separately, then there are a few extra criteria that you have to meet in order to get this tax credit. | |
| Then, you also cannot be a dependent on somebody else's taxes And you must have a qualifying child. | |
| Or if you don't have a qualifying child, then there are certain other criteria that you have to meet. | |
| If that all sounds too complicated, well, here's a very simplified video from a Michigan-based nonprofit outlining how this tax credit generally works. | |
| Meet John. | |
| John is a single parent who works full-time at a local business, where he makes $30,000 a year. | |
| He works hard to support his daughter, Natasha, and he pays federal and state taxes. | |
| After paying for groceries, the rent on his apartment, gasoline to drive to and from work, and daycare for Natasha, there's little money left over, let alone money for emergencies, Natasha's college savings, or future homeownership. | |
| This is where the EITC helps John and his daughter Natasha. | |
| John finds out about the EITC and goes to the IRS website to see if he is eligible. | |
| He makes $30,000 a year, so he qualifies for the EITC as a single parent with one child. | |
| When John files his taxes, he makes sure to claim the EITC. In his situation, the EITC credit is more than what he owes in taxes. | |
| He gets the extra amount back in a tax refund. | |
| Although it is worth mentioning that even though in that particular video it said that John received $100 as a refund, that was just a simplified illustration because according to the IRS, the average EITC tax credit is closer to $2,000. | |
| And depending on the amount of criteria that you actually meet, it can be as high as $6,900. | |
| Then, in terms of the income limits, the income limits that we mentioned earlier, here's a chart for the year 2022. | |
| You can pause this video to take a closer look if you'd like. | |
| But essentially, those numbers are the upper limit of income. | |
| If you made above that amount, then you don't qualify for the EITC. Basically, the more people you have in your household, like a spouse and several kids, the higher the limit is, while the less people you have in the household, the lower the limit is. | |
| And it's structured this way because the Earned Income Tax Credit was made initially and up until today to help working people as well as working families, especially those with children. | |
| However, to be frank with you, my initial intention with this video was to present to you in a really comprehensive and simple way all the different criteria, all the different specific criteria for this particular tax credit. | |
| I wanted to make it super simple for everyone. | |
| But after digging through the IRS's website, I found that to be an impossible task. | |
| There are so many little criteria, there are caveats, then if you don't meet a certain criteria, there are some alternative criteria that you could meet to still get the credit, and so on. | |
| And so, what I figured is that the best way for you to make sure that you don't leave any money on the table is to head on over to the EITC Assistant. | |
| It's a website that was put together by the IRS. Essentially, it's a questionnaire where they ask you questions step by step, you fill it out, and it'll determine within a few minutes whether you qualify and how much money the government actually owes you. | |
| And funny enough, even though it is a government-run website, it's fairly well designed. | |
| I'll throw a link to the EITC assistant. | |
| It'll be right there at the very top of the description box below. | |
| I'd highly recommend that you check it out because, frankly, I hate leaving money on the table, especially when that money is on the government's table. | |
| And I should also mention that I do not make any money myself from promoting that link. | |
| I only want to make sure that you claim all the money that the government owes you. | |
| And also, if you're watching this video and you might have tried in a previous year and you happen to not qualify, well, perhaps you should check again, because you might qualify this year. | |
| In fact, according to the IRS's official estimate, they say that about one-third of EITC-eligible taxpayers turn over every single year. | |
| And so even though you didn't qualify last year, maybe this year, you do. | |
| Furthermore, in his recent statement, in the statement that he made about three days ago, the current acting commissioner of the IRS, Mr. | |
| Doug O'Donnell, he said this, quote, Each year, many people miss out on the credit because they don't know about it or don't realize they're eligible. | |
| In particular, people who have experienced a major life change in the past year in their job, marital status, a new child, or other factors may qualify for the first time. | |
| Even though millions of people get the EITC, the IRS estimates that about 20% of EITC-eligible taxpayers do not claim it. | |
| He then went on to list a few typical scenarios of people who overlook this tax credit, including people who live in nontraditional homes, such as a grandparent raising a grandchild, those who recently got married, those who recently had a child, those who are self-employed, veterans of the military, as well as anyone whose earnings decreased in the prior year. | |
| And so again, in order for you to check whether you qualify, the link will be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| Check it out for yourself and also share it with anyone who you think it might help. | |
| 20% of people fail to claim their money from the government, Well, let's see if we can drive that number down to 18% this year. | |
| And then lastly, once you get that fat check in the mail, once you get either your $2,000 all the way up to $6,900 check in the mail, you're thinking, well, what can I do with that money? | |
| Well, here's a great opportunity for me to show you this beautiful coin. | |
| This right here is an American Walking Liberty one ounce gold coin. | |
| And typically, I order at least one of these from our sponsor, American Heart for Gold, every single month. | |
| The reason I do so is because, I mean, as you likely know, the inflation rate in this country is the highest that it's been in, what, the last 40 years now? | |
| Everything like the price of food, The price of housing, the price of gas is absolutely going through the roof. | |
| And in fact, market experts like the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, he's not only predicting a recession, but he's even using words like unprecedented economic hurricane. | |
| And so listen, I absolutely do not give you any financial advice, but I would recommend that you do what I do. | |
| Which is pick up the phone and call American Hartford Gold. | |
| Their super friendly staff can help you diversify your portfolio by either getting physical gold and physical silver delivered directly to your doorstep like I do, or deposited directly into your IRA and your 401k accounts that make the entire process super simple. | |
| Actually, besides me, they have an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau with quite literally thousands of satisfied clients around the country. | |
| And best of all, to our viewers, to the viewers of Facts Matter, they are currently throwing in $2,500 worth of free silver on your first qualifying order. | |
| So giving them a call is an absolute no-brainer. | |
| So pick up the phone and call 866-242-2352. | |
| That's 866-242-2352. | |
| Or text Roman to 65532. | |
| The link will also be down in the description box below. | |
| And then let's head on back to the studio. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. |
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