General

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Direct File: Free and easy tax filing help for Illinoisans

If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, check out IRS Direct File! It’s a groundbreaking new service that will allow taxpayers to file their taxes online QUICKLY, EASILY, and FOR FREE. Filing taxes is an important responsibility, and also a source of critical help for many of us who get hundreds or even thousands of…

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WheresMyCheck?: The Enhanced Child Tax Credit Has Ended, and Congress Must Act

All families deserve the safety and stability of being able to afford the basics for their kids. The enhanced Child Tax Credit (CTC), enacted through the American Rescue Plan, has meant that 36 million families across the country were receiving additional income support to do just that.

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Help for families with kids: $3,000/$3,600 Child Tax Credit still available for families who don’t file taxes

If you have a child under age 18 you care for, but you haven’t received the monthly advance payments from the IRS, you might want to sign up using the new online portal GetCTC.org. Thousands of Illinois families are eligible. But recent surveys have suggested that many parents may not know they are eligible.

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Improving Cash Assistance Delivery: Lessons from the CARES Act

Millions of low-income, out-of-work Americans struggled to get access to their stimulus checks through the CARES Act while others with higher incomes and fewer barriers got theirs automatically. After helping thousands of Illinoisans, here’s what we learned about improving service delivery the next time around.