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You've got three days to get your taxes filed to meet the April 15th deadline.

And state leaders are still trying to spread the word about New Jersey's earned income tax credit.

It's available to low and moderate income workers over the age of 18 and offers a state funded refund that averages about $825 for each recipient.

The ITC gets a lot of praise from groups that advocate for low income residents.

Yet as many as one in five people who are eligible aren't aware it exists.

Our budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer joins me to explain.

So, John, first of all, good to see you.

Why is that?

Why aren't people applying for this?

Yeah, I think that's a good question.

A lot of times I don't think people feel like maybe these types of tax credits are worth their time.

Or maybe you're at a level where you're not you're not really having to file taxes because you don't make a lot of money.

And so you're not thinking about it this way.

But what's important about this earned income tax credit is it's a refundable credit, which means even if you don't have a tax liability or if you have a very small liability, you get whatever the formula that they use for this credit will give you based on income and how many children you may have.

You know, regardless of your tax liability.

And so if the numbers pump out $2,000, that's what you get.

And it's not just like a refund off of your liability, it's a refundable credit that's basically cash in your wallet.

And it's interesting because this is not new, the ITC and yet people, as you report and those numbers that I gave or from your reporting aren't applying for it.

So what is the benefit of it, aside from obviously having cash in the pockets of folks who need it, why did they create it?

Yeah, and you know, thousands it is a very popular tax credit and the state does process hundreds of thousands of claims for this credit.

So there is a big group that is applying for and receiving the earned income tax credit.

And we should make the point that it's for people who are working.

So it's basically supplementing work, even if it's low or low income work.

And that's because at from a policy level, the decision was made and this has been popular both with Democrats and Republicans, that it's a reward almost for getting out there and holding down a job, whether it's a high paying job or not.

And then for someone struggling, you know, New Jersey's a very costly state to live in really at any income level, but especially at the lower income levels.

And so this helps people play a little bit of defense against those high costs.

Inflation things that we're seeing right now.

The earned income tax credit, you're making a living, but maybe barely squeaking by this when it's paired with something like the child tax credit, which New Jersey offer also offers and gives a bigger credit at the lower income levels.

You know, it starts to play a little bit of defense on these high costs.

Makes sense.

Okay.

You have to be working.

You have to be at least 18 years old.

What else makes you eligible and how can you find out if you are?

Yeah.

So I would say go to the the website.

It's in my story on this topic, Treasury's website to look at all the different qualification requirements.

The numbers get pretty big.

You might think that you make too much money for this credit, but if you have three or more children, the income levels, depending on whether you're single or married, can go up into the 50 or $60,000 a year.

So you might think that you are making a little bit too much for a credit like this, but it's low to moderate income in New Jersey.

You know, we have, you know, moderate income can can be a pretty big number relatively in New Jersey.

So absolutely, it's worth looking into check online.

And even if you've already filed your taxes, there's still time to amend your tax return.

The state gives you up to three years.

So even if it was last year you met the requirements, it might be worth your time to look into even filing an amended tax return.

Very good point.

Hey, let me ask you, we got some updated numbers from Treasury today about revenue.

And this is a state funded tax credit.

A lot of talk right now about the big spending happening in the state budget.

What's the numbers that we're looking at for revenue and how does it jive with what analysts have been predicting?

I think this year is shaping up to be a classic year for the state budget because we're a little bit behind in terms of revenue collections off the pace of last year, which is sort of been the trend headed into April.

The income tax always makes or breaks New Jersey's budget.

The income tax is the largest source of revenue, and so we'll know a lot more once we get past, you know, April 15th or a few weeks beyond when they have a chance to collect and count up all these last minute returns.

John Reitmeyer for us.

John, thanks as always.

You're welcome.