Linking Tax Refunds and Low-Cost Bank Accounts: Early Lessons for Program Design and Evaluation (Bits, Briefs, And Applications‪)‬

This article describes a pilot program encouraging low-income workers to have their tax refunds directly deposited into low-cost bank accounts. Although the program did not lead to substantial saving in the short-term, it did seem to facilitate account ownership among the unbanked and to serve as a bridge to other financial services and products. Early lessons for the design and evaluation of related programs are discussed. **********