In 2011, Pennsylvania low-income wage earners received over seven and one-half million dollars in tax refunds by filing their state and federal tax returns through a free online program - PA I-CAN!® E-File - pioneered in the state by Southwestern Pennsylvania Legal Services (SPLAS).

PA I-CAN!® E-File, which launched in 2007, initiated through a grant from the federal Legal Services Corporation, brought to the Commonwealth a unique, easy-to-utilize self-help method of tax filing, originated by a legal services program in California, which, to date has generated over $30 million in tax refunds in the state!

Robert Brenner, Executive Director of SPLAS, noted that a primary objective of the initiative is to afford the targeted low-income community the ability to reclaim every penny of the Earned Income Tax Credit to which they are entitled without having to pay a private taxpayer agency a high fee for what they can do on their own, and, in addition, avoid the high interest rates charged by these agencies for “anticipation loans,” which expedite payment of the return.

“By enabling low-income people to do their own returns, in a simple computer program, without cost, and receive the refund quickly directly from the government, those workers and their families optimize their ability to recover the entitled return."

During 2011, the Earned Income Tax Credit component of funds returned through PA I-CAN!® E-File GENERATED a record $2.6 million.

Brenner noted that, while happy with the accelerating rate of return each year generated through the program, the amount of unclaimed funds each year by the low-income population in the Commonwealth often exceeds $100 million.

“Given the ongoing economic challenge gripping the nation, SPLAS and its partners in legal services programs throughout the state, and other community organizations, will remain committed to helping each year augment the total return of the unclaimed funds to the targeted individuals and their families throughout the Commonwealth."