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Intuit Joins WE Connect for Low-Income Californians

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WE Connect. Intuit teams with California's first lady, Maria Shriver, to help low-income Californians take advantage of government programs and services. The statewide effort is operated under the name of WE Connect.

Intuit Gets Involved

"When we heard that the first lady was interested in helping taxpayers learn about the Earned Income Tax Credit and other programs, we thought we could pitch in and help," said Intuit's Whitney MacDougall, director of corporate affairs for California. "Since 1998, Intuit has been committed to helping taxpayers claim EITC through the Intuit Tax Freedom Project. The first lady's program presented an opportunity to build on that commitment by raising awareness of other programs that help people add to their bottom line each month."

Intuit pitched several ideas to Shriver, including a Web-based tool (see below). Shriver's office liked the ideas Intuit brought to the table, and a partnership was born. In addition to donating $1 million to the campaign through the Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation and designing the Web tool, Intuit is also providing public relations support and volunteers at community events.

WEb Connector

Perhaps most visible among Intuit's support efforts is the launching of its free Web tool called the WEb Connector that would allow people to determine if they were eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and other federal programs.

This Intuit tool is designed to help Californians more easily determine if they are eligible for the federal EITC and California-specific programs, including the Child and Dependent Care Expenses Credit, food stamps, low-cost gas and electric, LifeLine Telephone Program and low-cost automobile insurance.

"A lot of these credits have complex formulas behind them," MacDougall said. "We took what we know how to do best - making complex things easy - and created a tool on the Web that's available to the public that will let them figure out if they are eligible."

"Having the state-of-the-art WEb Connector online tool is a great way to connect working families to a multitude of resources they qualify for and help put money back in the pockets of hard-working families," Shriver said.

Effort Includes Prompts Built into Lacerte and ProSeries Tax Software

On another front, Intuit has built in a response to this effort inside its recently released professional software (for the 2007 tax year). In Lacerte^® and ProSeries^®, when California taxpayers returns show that they qualify for EITC, a diagnostic message comes up to prompt the practitioner to help inform the client of the other California programs available.

More on Intuit's Role and the Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation

Intuit knows something about taxes, personal finances and creating tools that make the complicated formulas behind them easy for the average person.

"Intuit and its foundation are proud to sponsor Maria Shriver's WE Connect campaign," said Brad Smith, Intuit CEO. "The Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation is committed to serving the public interest through programs benefiting individuals and small businesses. WE Connect and Intuit are a great fit - working together to address underserved needs."

Other partners in WE Connect include California Volunteers, Bank of America, Legal Aid Society of Orange County, La Opinion, United Way, Save the Children, First 5 California, Taco Bell, A&W, KFC, Long John Silver's and California Small Business Development Centers.

Last Updated: 01/18/2008