8 - Beyond EITC Delivery and Administration

Summary

Chapter 8 delivers a broader critique of how Congress addresses the persistent problem of poverty in the United States. The largest antipoverty program in the United States is conditioned on a work requirement; this chapter pauses to consider whether the Code can also be used to deliver benefits to those who fall through the cracks because they cannot or do not work. The chapter identifies how the changes enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will impact low-income individuals. It closes with thoughts about what Congress is asking of the Internal Revenue Code, and the IRS, by using both as a vehicle for social programs. There are compelling reasons to keep the EITC in the Code and with the IRS; the book concludes with a call for a more thoughtful design of both the credit and the way in which the agency implements it.