Today I want to talk to you about the Idaho Food Tax Credit because this is something that a lot of people miss. If you live in the state of Idaho, you may be eligible for this, and if you don’t know about it, you could just be leaving money on the table.
This is a tax credit that is supposed to offset the sales tax that you pay on food purchases. It used to be called the grocery tax credit, but they’ve changed it a little bit. Most Idaho residents receive $155 per person on this, but you could get up to $250 per person with receipts. This can really add up if you have a large family.
This is a transcript of our video. You can watch the full video on our YouTube channel: Low Income Relief.
Who Is Eligible
To be eligible for this, you need to be an Idaho resident. You can claim the credit for your dependents as well. The really big thing that a lot of people miss is that there is no income limit for this. That means that even if you don’t usually have to file taxes, you can still claim this credit.
How To Claim If You File Taxes
If you file a tax return, it’s pretty straightforward. You just need to follow the instructions in your tax preparation software. It’ll usually guide you through that.
If you’re doing it on paper, the forms you’re going to look at are either Form 40 or Form 43.
How To Claim If You Don’t File Taxes
For those of you who don’t file taxes—and I know that’s a substantial amount of our audience—you can still get this refund. I don’t want you to leave this money on the table.
If you don’t make enough money to file taxes, you’re still eligible. You just have to jump through a couple of extra hoops. To figure out what form you need to use, you’ll need to complete the Food Tax Credit Worksheet. That will help you determine what form you need to use to claim that refund. It’ll either be Form 24, Form 40, or Form 43.
The worksheet that we link to below will tell you what you need to use. Then you just need to submit your claim. It’s important to remember that you can only file one form to claim your credit refund, so you need to make sure that you’re using the right one.
Free Help Is Available
If this is overwhelming to you, you can usually contact VITA—that’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance—or TCE—that’s Tax Counseling for the Elderly—to help you claim your food tax credit. Those are two programs that help people file their taxes, and you can reach out to them using the links that we’ll include in the description below.
There are other free ways to get assistance, too. You can call the Idaho Tax Commission, submit a question online, or find one of those local volunteer sites like we just talked about.
How Much You Can Get
Most residents are going to get that $155 per person automatically. But if you save your receipts, you can claim up to $250 if you can prove that you paid more sales tax on your food.
If you’re ready to get started with this, go to tax.idaho.gov for all the forms, worksheets, and everything you need to get started.
I hope this has been helpful to you. If we helped you find some money today, please like this video and share it with others so that they can connect with that credit as well. We’ll be back soon with more ways that you can save money and get free stuff. I’ll see you there.
