Assistance program
Low Income Taxpayer Clinics
$133.1 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Internal Revenue Service, Treasury, Department of the
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 21.008
- What it does
- This assistance opportunity provides a matching grant of up to $200,000 per grant year to qualified organizations. Applicants are encouraged to apply for a grant to provide both representation to low-income taxpayers in controversies with the Internal Revenue Services and to provide education to low-income and ESL individuals about their taxpayer rights and responsibilities. However, a qualified organization may also receive a grant for operating an LITC program to inform taxpayers for whom English is a Second Language about their taxpayer rights and responsibilities without also providing controversy representation.
- Who benefits
- Low Income Taxpayers are: Individuals whose household income does not exceed 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines published annually by the Department of Health and Human Services. ESL Taxpayers are: individuals for whom English is not their first language.
- Who applies
- Public nonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher education and hospitals), Private nonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher education and hospitals) Examples of a qualified organizations include: 1. a clinical program at an accredited law, business, or accounting school whose students represent low-income taxpayers in tax controversies with the IRS (and when necessary, refer to qualified volunteers to provide representation when the students cannot do so), 2. an organization exempt from tax under IRC section 501(a) whose employees and volunteers represent low-income taxpayers in controversies with the IRS, 3. an organization exempt from tax under IRC section 501(a) whose employees and volunteers refer to qualified representatives to provide representation, 4. an organization that operates a program to inform ESL taxpayers about their taxpayer rights and responsibilities, and 5. an organization that functions refers taxpayers to qualified representatives for controversy representation, but such organization must be tax-exempt under section 501(a); and An LITC may not charge more than a nominal fee for its services and organizations that provide representation are expected to also provide educational services to low income and ESL individuals.
- Authorized by
- Internal Revenue Code, as amended
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments