Tax Credits for the Working Poor - A Call for Reform

Analyzes the effectiveness of the earned income tax credit in the United States and offers suggestions for how it can be improved.

List of contents

Preface and acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction: rethinking the earned income tax credit; 1. A history of the EITC: how it began and what it has become; 2. Why the United States uses lump-sum delivery; 3. How inexpensive administration creates expensive challenges; 4. Importing ideas: case studies in design and administrability; 5. Reimagining the credit: why and how to restructure the EITC; 6. Making a case for year-round EITC delivery; 7. Protecting the anti-poverty element; 8. Beyond EITC delivery and administration: how the United States addresses poverty; Index.

About the author

Michelle Lyon Drumbl is Clinical Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University, Virginia and previously an attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. Her scholarship focuses on low-income taxpayers and fiscal policy. Her article examining earned income tax credit noncompliance, 'Beyond Polemics: Poverty, Taxes, and Noncompliance', was awarded the Cedric Sandford Medal for best paper at the 12th International Conference on Tax Administration in Sydney.

Summary

Drumbl analyzes the effectiveness of the earned income tax credit (EITC) in the United States and offers suggestions for how it can be improved. This book should be read by anyone interested in how the EITC can be reimagined to better serve the working poor and, more generally, whether the tax system can promote social justice.

Product details

• Authors: Michelle Lyon Drumbl
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9781108400206
• ISBN: 978-1-108-40020-6
• No. of pages: 232
• Subjects: Guides > Law, job, finance > Taxes; Social sciences, law, business > Law > General, dictionaries; Economics, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Constitutions, LAW / General Practice, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Public Finance, Welfare economics, Public finance, Constitution: government & the state, Public finance and taxation, Constitution: government and the state, Legal skills & practice, Legal skills and practice