Citi and local partners helping people recover the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Citi is working with non-profit partners and public agencies across the country to provide free tax preparation and filing services coupled with education, savings and other related programs that help low- and moderate-income (LMI) people make the most of the money they retain through the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Detailed information about these efforts is available on the Citi Community Development website.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), enacted in 1975, "is a refundable federal income tax credit for low to moderate income working individuals and families," according to the IRS. "When EITC exceeds the amount of taxes owed, it results in a tax refund to those who claim and qualify for the credit."

This tax refund can represent a significant boost in retained income - up to thousands of dollars -- for working families across the United States. Especially during the economic downturn, putting this hard-earned money back in people's pockets can make a tremendous difference for their ability to maintain a stable financial foundation and build for the future.

However, "to qualify, taxpayers must...file a tax return, even if they do not have a filing requirement," as the IRS points out. The preparation and filing of tax returns, in other words, can unlock a door to economic empowerment for many Americans. Regrettably, many people -- including those who are eligible for the EITC -- do not file, for a variety of reasons including the complexity of the process and the cost of some commercial tax-preparation services.

Many do not even realize that they would receive a refund if they did file. Many of the free tax preparation and EITC initiatives that Citi is involved with function within the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, through which certified volunteers receive special training and then help LMI taxpayers complete their annual returns for free at so-called "VITA sites." The volunteers' training enables them to help eligible families claim the EITC and other special credits such as those for elderly or disabled people. VITA sites are sponsored by non-profits and other community organizations and are located at schools, libraries, shopping areas and other convenient locations in communities across the country.

In the 2010 filing season, nearly 88,000 trained volunteers were trained by the IRS and worked at more than 12,000 sites, where they prepared more than 3.1 million returns. More than 700,000 of those were EITC returns, with total EITC credits of nearly a billion dollars.