Dear Friends,

Hello, and welcome to my e-news. I would like to take this moment to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve you in House District 95 and to act as your voice in the Capitol. In this issue, I will provide you with updates on:

  • State Income Tax Legislation
  • Tax Credits
  • Tax Preparation Information

As your representative, I am most effective at my job when acting on your input, and I encourage you to reach out to me and my staff with any questions, comments or concerns you may have about issues in the district, or legislation that will impact our state. You can contact me toll-free at (855) 347-8095, by email at vanessaguerra@house.mi.gov or through my website guerra.housedems.com. I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your commitment to the community we both call home.

State Income Tax Legislation

On February 23rd at 1:30AM I voted ‘no’ on House Bill 4001 and it was defeated by a close margin of 52-55. This bill would have reduced our state income tax to 3.9 percent over the course of 4 years. And while that sounds appealing to all of us, it would also have left a $1 billion dollar hole in the state’s budget in the first year alone.While I work hard to ensure taxes are not any higher than necessary, many questions about the ramifications of this bill remained unanswered. Quickly pushing it through the procedural process does not make for sound public policy. This means our local units of government would suffer, our police and fire would suffer, and our infrastructure would be nowhere near as safe and secure as we deserve it to be. We all want tax relief, and I am more than willing to work with colleagues on both sides to obtain that for our hardworking families, but not at the expense of the most essential city and township and state services. In fact, attempts were made to find a more reasonable compromise. An amendment was offered that would apply the tax rate reduction to those earning $70,000 or less in an attempt to provide some relief to the working poor, middle and upper middle class, however the amendment was not adopted.

There are a number of tax credits that either Michigan families do not know are available or go unclaimed every year. These credits include things like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the federal American Opportunity Tax Credit and the Home Heating Credit.

Residents who pay their heating bills themselves are eligible to receive the credit in the form of an energy voucher, which must then be sent to their heat provider. Filers can also find out where to receive assistance by calling 2-1-1.

Tax Preparation Information

The VITA program uses IRS-EITC income guidelines to determine a taxpayer’s eligibility for free tax preparation.

In order to qualify for full service tax preparation, your household income for the 2016 tax year should be less than:

Taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of up to $62,000 are invited to use to prepare and e-file their federal taxes online. Free File also offers a basic e-filing service for everyone, regardless of income.

95th House District

<span “>