Boosting Family Incomes Through Tax Credits

In 1993, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was expanded under President Bill Clinton with bipartisan support, lifting millions out of poverty and inspiring states like Colorado to create their own programs. Despite its effectiveness, participation lagged — particularly among rural residents, non-English speakers, self-employed workers and many other groups who stood to benefit significantly from these tax credits. By 2005, Colorado’s EITC uptake trailed the national average, signaling the need for a targeted effort.

Gary responded with a long-term, multifaceted strategy to increase awareness and access. The initiative began with an outreach campaign that evolved into Get Ahead Colorado, one of the nation’s largest EITC communications and awareness efforts. Drawing inspiration from New Mexico’s student-driven Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) model, Gary also launched Tax Help Colorado in partnership with the Colorado Community College System to help more Coloradans file their taxes. The program later expanded to include high school students, community volunteers and innovative service delivery options such as drop-off, virtual and self-assisted tax preparation. Additional sites in schools, housing authorities and early childhood centers extended access to hard-to-reach populations.

The results have been substantial. Since its inception, Get Ahead Colorado has collaborated with 440-plus partners, distributed an average of 750,000 materials annually and reached 300,000 people digitally each year. Tax Help Colorado now files taxes for nearly 8,000 Coloradans annually, securing over $174 million in refunds while saving families $19 million in preparation fees between 2007-2021. This data and the lessons learned from these efforts helped inform subsequent initiatives to expand tax credits, including Colorado’s state EITC in 2013 and the Family Affordability Tax Credit in 2024.

As a sunsetting organization, Gary’s goal is to find permanent homes for successful ventures, intentionally seeking out partners who can help expand the sustainability and reach of these programs. In the case of Tax Help and Get Ahead Colorado, both initiatives have now transitioned to Mile High United Way and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, respectively, ensuring their long-term impact. Their success demonstrates the power of community-driven innovation to reduce poverty and strengthen economic mobility.

Tax Credits Show Efficacy but Lack Strategic Reach

In 1993, President Bill Clinton tripled the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). At the time, the move gained bipartisan support, and was quickly heralded for its anti-poverty effectiveness, lifting more than four million people out of poverty each year by 2005. During that same time, the federal EITC delivered more than $38 billion annually for nearly 22 million households. It was so effective as a lever to decrease poverty that individual states began creating their own EITCs — Colorado included.

Despite the program’s success, a 2005 study published by the National Tax Journal found that participation in the EITC as well as the Child Tax Credit (CTC) lagged participation in more traditional safety net programs.

Groups Most Likely to Miss Out on Tax Credits

An IRS study found 74.5% of Colorado families claimed the EITC, compared to 80% nationally, so our home state found itself lagging behind national averages. Additionally, that same study found that many vulnerable Coloradans were among the most likely to miss out on the EITC, including:

Growing Tax Credit Awareness and Filing Capacity

The first investment the Gary team made towards addressing EITC and CTC underutilization was the implementation of a robust outreach campaign. Over the course of 30 years, the campaign was sustained, simplified and rebranded as Get Ahead Colorado, with outreach being tailored to changing consumer preferences.

The Gary team also took advantage of a shared learning opportunity with a neighboring state program called Tax Help New Mexico. The program was utilizing students from New Mexico’s community college system to help fuel its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs’ volunteer pool, while also utilizing space and technology from the community colleges themselves.

Since its founding in 1969, the VITA program has proven to be effective in raising awareness about the EITC and CTC and increasing the number of families who claim those tax credits. Individuals are eligible for VITA services if they earn $54,000 or less in income, have a disability or have limited English proficiency. By 2018, VITA had grown to a national network of 4,000 sites, each with highly trained volunteers. In 2018 alone, according to Prosperity Now, these volunteers helped qualified tax filers access $1.9 billion in tax refunds, including $646 million from the EITC and $97 million from the CTC.

This seemed to be a replicable model for Colorado and the Gary team went about activating a version of the program that was dubbed Tax Help Colorado.

Initially, we partnered with the Colorado Community College System, working with each institution’s accounting program. While the partnership proved to be invaluable, community college locations left several key areas of the state out of reach. Therefore, the program was expanded to include high school students, with volunteer opportunities offered as part of continuing education programs. High school volunteerism began with Adams City High School students before expanding to the entire Adams County School District 14 and Aurora Public Schools, among many others.

To improve the program further, we worked with Catapult Designs to execute a human-centered design review of our programs, which led to the following modifications:

• We added a community volunteer arm to provide yet another stream of qualified, reliable, long-term tax preparers.
• We began offering the option for program participants to bypass the appointment and simply drop off their materials for a tax preparer, schedule virtual appointments or take part in a facilitated self-assistance filing program — all of which were changes aiming to better accommodate the busy schedules of working families.
• To maximize convenience for families, we added sites at early childhood education centers and housing providers like the Denver Housing Authority.

Building Successful, Sustainable Solutions

Over the course of 30 years, Get Ahead Colorado has become one of the nation’s largest EITC awareness campaigns, working with more than 440 partners to disseminate approximately 750,000 pieces of marketing collateral and reach 300,000 people with digital assets each year. Meanwhile, Tax Help Colorado serves close to 8,000 Coloradans annually and has helped families claim over $174 million in refunds, while saving approximately $19 million in tax preparation fees from 2007-2021.

Armed with the stories collected by both campaigns, the Get Ahead Colorado and Tax Help Colorado teams were key advocates for the passage of Senate Bill 13-001 in 2013, establishing a permanent state-based EITC in years when Colorado has a revenue surplus. In fiscal year 2014-2015, this legislative trigger was activated and the credit became available for the 2015 tax year. It has remained available ever since.

Additionally, Get Ahead Colorado and Tax Help Colorado have had the opportunity to pay forward the shared learning that led to the creation of both programs. The programs hosted the first-ever Colorado VITA Conference in 2017 and were later invited to host the national VITACon conference in 2019, where our teams helped the event double in size from the previous year.