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Post by bot on Apr 15, 2004 1:55:16 GMT -5
Low Income Taxpayers to Find Relief Thanks to Rep. Xavier Becerra Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA-31), the first Latino to serve on the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, recently introduced "The Low-Income Taxpayer Protection Act of 2004", a proposal aimed at assisting low income taxpayers in preparing and filing their tax returns and protecting them from unscrupulous refund anticipation loan (RAL) providers. RAL providers offer immediately available high interest loans to taxpayers secured by their anticipated tax refunds — with annualized interest rates ranging from 97 to 2,000 percent.
According to a report prepared by the Consumer Federation of America and the National Consumer Law Center entitled "All Drain, No Gain," RAL fees cost consumers approximately $1.14 billion in 2002, up nearly $200 million from the year before. Additional fees for electronic filing, "document preparation," and "applications" added another $406 million to the total. Families who can afford it the least are suffering a $1.5 billion drain on their tax refunds. Congressman Becerra's proposal will protect low-income taxpayers from these abuses.
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