CA$H Maine

Creating Assets, Savings & Hope

Young Woman in graduation attire with Adult Education Honor Society certificate

Expanding EITC to Help Maine’s Young Workers

Posted August 9, 2019

Balancing Work and School While Sharing A Car This year included many firsts for 19-year-old Dena Greiner. She started Adult Education Classes, a full-time job, and just filed her taxes for the first time. Although Dena didn’t graduate from high school because it wasn’t for her, she’s on track to provide for herself. By receiving… Read more

Two teenage boys and their mother

Increasing EITC to Help Maine’s Working Families

Posted August 9, 2019

Supporting Her Family on a Tight Budget When Lisa Clark and her husband decided to start a family, they knew raising children would be expensive. But they successfully started their own business and were financially on track. However, life changed in 2013 when her husband died an automobile accident. For a while, Lisa ran the… Read more

person filling out checklist

Does Your Paycheck Need A Checkup?

Posted July 12, 2018

An informative article on the United Way blog has some great information about why it’s important to take a quick look at your paycheck right now.  (See the original blog post, here:  Does Your Paycheck Need a Checkup?) Most notable from the post, is this: The IRS has created a Withholding Calculator to help people estimate the… Read more

Coalition Members on the stairs at the Statehouse

EITC Day at the Statehouse 2018

Posted January 26, 2018

Free Tax Assistance Helps Maine Residents Claim Their Full Refunds Thousands of Maine workers could overlook important federal tax benefits because they simply don’t know about them. They could miss out on an extra boost. To celebrate EITC Awareness Day CA$H Maine provided information at the Maine Statehouse Hall of Flags yesterday. “The Earned Income… Read more

Woman wearing a hat

Tax prep volunteer puts minds at ease

Posted February 28, 2017

Longtime L-A CA$H volunteer Monica Lee sits at the Lewiston Memorial Armory recently during a daily tax preparation session.   Lee, who has been assisting residents with taxes for 10 years, says the program helps people “ease their mind.”  Written by Andrew Rice and published in the Sun Journal on February 20, 2017.  Not many… Read more

Mother and son at window of the Dutch Treat

CA$H Maine Celebrates EITC Awareness Day

Posted January 27, 2017

What is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)? Each year, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) supports the financial stability of over 27 million of low-and moderate-income workers by reducing the regressive federal tax burden on low-wage earners.  Depending on a worker’s income, the amount of taxes owed may be less than the credit and… Read more

Words about debt

Help Close the Debt Trap

Posted September 6, 2016

According to the Maine Center for Economic Policy “Payday loans notoriously carry high APRs (annual percentage rate). In Maine, the rates are as high as 217%! Strategically located in low-income neighborhoods or on the internet, payday lenders intentionally trap borrowers in debt that they cannot escape. The average payday borrower is trapped by ten transactions… Read more

Man with racial wealth text

The Racial Wealth Gap

Posted June 13, 2016

  Did you know that 2/3 of people living in the USA live paycheck to paycheck? For those that experience this, it is hard to build wealth when there is nothing left at the end of the month to save or invest. Wealth inequality is becoming just as a big of a problem as income inequality…. Read more

Maine State House

Update: LD 1318 Work and Save

Posted June 7, 2016

LD 1318, known by its shortened name, Work and Save, did not survive the legislative process this past session in spite of  the concerted efforts of a group of  advocates led by Amy Gallant of AARP, and  supported by Eloise Vitelli for CA$H Maine and NVME, among others. Conversations have already begun, however, to re-introduce… Read more