With the questions and confusion that each tax season brings, it can be easy to feel lost and miss out on all the money you could be eligible for. Many times people who don\u2019t make a lot of money and busy families don\u2019t realize they could receive a refund by filing taxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if you weren\u2019t required to file taxes in 2024, it may not be too late to benefit from the tax credits that you are owed. For example, a childless worker earning $8,260 may be eligible for $632 in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). A parent of two children who earns $17,400 may be eligible for $6,960 in the EITC and another $4,400 in the Child Tax Credit (CTC). See if you are eligible for the EITC aqu\u00ed<\/a> and for the CTC aqu\u00ed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a number of ways to file taxes for free. If you didn\u2019t file for the last three years, but are owed a refund, you can still file past returns without penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other people who may be missing out on tax credits like the EITC and CTC are low-income workers, grandparents raising grandchildren, college students, gig workers, people between addresses, people being incorrectly claimed by former foster parents, and more. If you fit within any of these categories, or have questions about whether or not you might be eligible for a refund, learn more on our FAQs page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a more complicated situation or still need personal help, you may want to reach out to a volunteer tax assistance organization to find out how to file. In Chicago, LadderUp<\/a> provides additional assistance to the community. Other trained Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs nationwide are listed on the IRS website<\/a>. Code for America\u2019s Get Your Refund website<\/a> can also help link you to a local nonprofit who can help. Note, more assistance is generally available during peak tax filing times when VITA programs have the most capacity.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many people with low or modest incomes don\u2019t realize they could receive a refund by filing taxes. Even if you weren\u2019t required to file in 2024, you may still qualify for valuable credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit. Filing now could put hundreds or even thousands of dollars back in your pocket.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Could You Be Missing a Tax Refund You\u2019re Eligible For?","_seopress_titles_desc":"You may qualify for tax credits even if you didn\u2019t have to file in 2024. Learn how the EITC and CTC could put money back in your pocket.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"General"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/pexels-ketut-subiyanto-4474040.jpg",1920,1280,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Dave Schmidt","author_link":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/author\/8e5602cd689fe9a2\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"General","slug":"general","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":12,"category_description":"","cat_name":"General","category_nicename":"general","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}