Boost your employees' tax refunds. At near-zero cost to your company.

The federal Education Freedom Tax Credit gives your employees a 100% dollar-for-dollar tax credit on donations to a qualified Scholarship Granting Organization — up to $1,700 per person, or $3,400 per married couple. With 1 Abacus Fund's EFTC Payroll Giving program, your employees authorize a small after-tax deduction from each paycheck (about $65 biweekly for the full $1,700). At tax time they claim the credit and their refund grows by the exact amount donated. Net cost to them: zero. Net cost to you: a deductible monthly ACH transfer fee, typically under $300 per year regardless of headcount.

How EFTC Payroll Giving works.

Five steps: (1) Your company signs a simple partnership agreement designating an HR/payroll coordinator. (2) Your employees use our free EFTC capacity calculator to find their own number, then complete an enrollment authorization form. (3) Your payroll system applies a voluntary after-tax deduction (a standard feature of ADP, Paychex, Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll, Workday, and SAP). (4) You aggregate the deductions and remit a single monthly ACH transfer to the SGO. (5) The SGO issues each employee an annual donation receipt for use on their personal tax return. Your payroll team's ongoing time commitment is roughly 15 minutes for initial setup and a few minutes per month for the transfer.

What this looks like at your company size.

Estimates assume a 40% employee participation rate at the full $1,700 contribution; actual results vary by workforce demographics. The annual cost figure is the employer ACH-fee subsidy only and is fully deductible as a business expense.

50 employees → roughly 20 participants → about $34,000 in annual scholarship impact → approximately $150 annual employer cost.

200 employees → roughly 80 participants → about $136,000 in annual scholarship impact → approximately $300 annual employer cost.

500 employees → roughly 200 participants → about $340,000 in annual scholarship impact → approximately $300 annual employer cost.

1,000 employees → roughly 400 participants → about $680,000 in annual scholarship impact → approximately $600 annual employer cost.

Already participate in PA EITC? Stack the federal EFTC on top.

Pennsylvania businesses that participate in the state EITC program already receive a 75% state tax credit (90% with a 2-year commitment), up to $750,000 per year. Layer EFTC Payroll Giving on top and your employees independently earn a 100% federal tax credit on their personal contributions, with no state-level interaction or double-dipping issue. Your business gets the state credit. Your employees get the federal credit. Both flows fund scholarships, and 1 Abacus Fund administers both. No other organization in Pennsylvania currently offers both programs as a single relationship. See the PA EITC + EFTC Stack page for a side-by-side comparison and a leverage example.

Liability and administrative effort.

Your company acts solely as a pass-through conduit. The partnership agreement includes a hold-harmless clause: you are not a tax advisor and you bear no responsibility for an individual employee's tax outcome. All employee-facing enrollment materials state plainly that the program is not tax advice and that each employee is responsible for determining their own EFTC capacity and claiming their own credit. You never see or assess employee tax information; employees check their own capacity in our free online calculator before enrolling. No W-2 entry is required — these are after-tax personal charitable contributions, not employer benefits.

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Schedule a 20-minute call.

Tell us your headcount, your payroll platform, and whether you currently participate in PA EITC. We'll come back with a customized impact estimate, a copy of the partnership agreement template, the employee enrollment authorization form, and a setup guide for your specific payroll system. No commitment.