April 4, 2018
The
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Week in Review
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Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortLand o bserver
Sarah Adams, executive director of non-profit CASH Oregon, welcomes low income families and
individuals to offices on the third floor of the Lloyd Center where they can get free help to prepare
their taxes and claim an Earned Income Tax Credit.
pages 7-11
Tax help
non-profit helps
filers claim
sizable tax credit
d anny P eterson
t he P ortLand o bserver
Tax season is upon us and if
you’re a low income worker, you
may be eligible for a tax credit
that averages $2,400 for recipi-
ents—that may be lower or higher
depending on the situation.
A non-profit called CASH Or-
egon offers free tax preparation
services at the Lloyd Center and
numerous other locations, aimed
at helping eligible recipients
claim the credit, called an Earned
Income Tax Credit. It can be espe-
cially helpful to families.
The tax credit, which can be
worth up to $6,300, tends to be
higher for qualifying individuals
with children.
“For example, for a family of
by
M ETRO
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in
Cash
Hand
four making just under $20,000,
[that] could be getting upwards of
over $5,000 in Earned Income Tax
Credit. Not an insignificant chunk
of change,” CASH Oregon Exec-
utive Director Sarah Adams, 41,
told the Portland Observer.
The organization is working in
partnership with the AARP Foun-
dation to offer tax services at over
50 locations in the Portland metro
area and across the state.
The credit is surprisingly un-
derutilized in Oregon. Each year,
25 percent of eligible families fail
to claim the credit, which adds up
to $130 million annually, accord-
ing to data from Oregon Center of
Public Policy.
Adams said the biggest barrier
people probably have to making
the claim is simply filing their tax-
es.
“Sometimes if you make a low
enough amount of money you
don’t actually have to file a tax re-
turn. So it may be just a very easy
thing to say ‘well, why bother with
that hassle?’ But if you don’t file
it, you won’t claim it, you won’t
be able to get it,” Adams said.
Of course, refunds won’t occur
the same day, but once received,
there are no restrictions on how to
spend the money.
According to CASH Oregon
data, it’s estimated that 55 percent
of the tax refunds they helped pre-
pare last year went to pay debt or
bills, while 34 percent went into
savings accounts, and another 11
percent was used to offset other
expenses.
Audrey Techur and Elfina Syo-
ziatro both sought tax assistance
C ontinued on P age 5
Honoring King 50 Years Later
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
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Church bells set to toll for each
of the 39 years of his life and
special ceremonies in honor of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were
planned across the city of Portland
Wednesday on the anniversary of
his death 50 years ago when he
was gunned down by an assassin
in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4,
1968.
Reflecting on civil rights prog-
ress since his death, residents
were asked to rededicate them-
selves to King’s vision of equality
and justice by meeting at 5 p.m. at
the Japanese-American Historical
Plaza, downtown, and marching
to the MLK statue outside the Or-
egon Convention Center for a 6:30
p.m. rally sponsored by the Albina
Ministerial Alliance Coalition for
Justice and Police Reform and Ec-
umenical Ministries of Oregon.
Metro regional government
also planned to host community
leaders early Wednesday to speak
about the civil rights movement
and civil rights work that’s still
needed. The NAACP Portland
Branch was marking the anniver-
sary with a noon ribbon-cutting
ceremony for their new branch of-
fice at the Lloyd Center.