Eligible Workers Can Boost Their Take-Home Pay

WASHINGTON - Even as it continues to process the truckloads of mail resulting from last week's tax filing deadline, the Internal Revenue Service begins sending letters today to 10 million filers, telling them they don't have to wait until next year to get money back from the government.

The IRS is notifying taxpayers who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on their 1993 returns that if they expect to claim the credit again this year, and have a qualifying child living with them, they can have advance payments of their credit added to their paychecks during 1994.

These advance payment can be up to 60 percent of the EITC amount, with the rest claimed on the tax return for the year. The maximum monthly advance payment is $102 for a person earning between $645 and $916 a month. To qualify for the EITC in 1994, a taxpayer's income for the year must be under $23,755.

The IRS mailout will include Form W-5, the form eligible workers must give to their employers to receive the advance payments. The form also explains who is eligible for the advance EITC payments.

The IRS expects to send additional mailouts in July and September to remaining 4.2 million taxpayers who will have claimed the EITC on their 1993 returns.

IRS centers are working around the clock to process the millions of returns mailed at or near the filing deadline. Based on the centers' mail volumes at the beginning of this week, it appears that many taxpayers again waited until the final days to mail returns with payments. As April 15, the IRS had received 82.8 million returns and sent out 51.7 million refunds, worth $53 billion.

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