Charleston Gazette-Mail – A coalition of 18 citizen and community organizations kicked off a campaign Monday for passage of a state Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers, unveiling a website that shows the economic impact of the credit, by legislative districts. Read
Seth DiStefano, with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said the credit would go a long way toward correcting the state’s “upside-down” tax structure that means persons in lower income brackets pay a higher percentage of their earnings in taxes.
“The federal Earned Income Tax Credit has been known on both sides of the aisle as one of the greatest tools to fight poverty,” he said, urging legislators to make West Virginia the 27th state to provide such relief on state income taxes.
Statewide, the credit would provide refunds of a portion of state income taxes to more than 140,000 low-income working West Virginians, with an average refund of about $330, according to data on the new website, www.investinwvfamilies.org. Those households include more than 160,000 children, according to the data.
