How can credit unions help individuals receive a $1,000 tax credit for contributing to a retirement savings plan?
Join the Savings Exchange pilot.
We want to help credit union members plan for 2012 tax time by organizing a group of credit unions to establish savers groups for low-income individuals in their communities. Since the Saver’s Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the refunds that taxpayers receive are all major contributors to the savings picture, Filene is convening this group with an eye toward building savings around tax time and finding new ways to help people save for the long term.
The ideal credit unions are those that have active participation or want to be active in Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Programs, tax services that members pay for, and/or involvement with the Investor Education In Your Workplace™ program.
The project stems from a Filene i3 (Ideas, Innovation, Implementation) idea called Savings Exchange. The i3 team collaborated with Kim Pate of CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development) and consisted of Jackie Edwards, Connexus Credit Union ($320 million, Wausau, WI); Tamela Meade, American Airlines Credit Union ($5.2 billion, Forth Worth, TX); Jon Reske, UMass Five College Federal Credit Union ($328 million, Hadley, MA); and Alison Wolf, FAA Credit Union ($472 million, Oklahoma City, OK).
The project consultants are John Hoffmire and Craig Wilson from Progress Through Business, a national non-profit. Hoffmire is also Director of the Center on Business and Poverty which is part of the Puelicher Center on Banking Education at the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison.
Interested in joining us, fill out the form below.
This program is funded in part by a grant from the National Credit Union Foundation. To learn more about the National Credit Union Foundation, visit their website.
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