For more than 20 years, the National League of Cities (NLC) has worked with municipal leaders to implement outreach campaigns to ensure that residents secure the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). These campaigns have helped raise awareness and encourage all eligible low—and moderate-income residents to claim EITC/CTC and receive a larger tax refund.
In 2025, qualifying families with three or more children can receive up to $8,046 via the EITC and $2,000 per child via the CTC. NLC supports municipal leaders in advancing their work to help more community residents claim these important financial boosts for families. As this work has grown, NLC has helped cities, towns, and villages develop new partnerships with existing local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs to help residents across the country access these critical tax credits through a trusted source. This work keeps more money — more than $400 per tax return — in residents’ pockets and local economies. These collective efforts return about $57 billion in federal funds back to local economies annually.
An in-depth review of strategies to create a campaign around the EITC and other city-led opportunities around family financial stability can be found in the Maximizing the Earned Income Tax Credit in Your Community: A Toolkit for Municipal Leaders.
Local municipalities across the country are working to connect their residents to the EITC and CTC. Check out blogs from the Cities of Dayton, OH, Louisville, KY and Philadelphia. If your city, town, or village is doing this work, we’d love to hear from you.
To help expand EITC participation in your community, we invite you to browse the additional resources below:
Do you have comments or questions, want to know where to start, or want to share what you’re doing? Email eofe@nlc.org.
EITC Awareness Day
For EITC Awareness Day, NLC has created a toolkit, which includes a draft press release, a template for emails to partners, a template for a city proclamation, and sample social media posts to raise the visibility of the EITC within your community in preparation for EITC Awareness Day.
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