Should-Read: Nisha Chikhale: Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit is worth exploring in the U.S. tax reform debate : "The Grow American Income Now, or GAIN, Act proposed by Rep. Khanna and Sen. Brown... http://equitablegrowth.org/equitablog/value-added/expanding-the-earned-income-tax-credit-is-worth-exploring-in-the-u-s-tax-reform-debate/
...would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit not only for low-wage working families with children but also for middle-income families and childless workers by increasing the income level for EITC eligibility.... Hilary Hoynes and Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley examined (open access version) how well the EITC accomplished its goals of redistribution, encouraging work, and limiting administrative costs and noncompliance. Hoynes and Rothstein argued then that policymakers could make the tax credit more progressive by expanding it for workers without children. This is one major revision that the GAIN Act has taken on board. In addition, the proposed bill would lower the qualifying age for the EITC from 25 years to 21 years, expanding eligibility to an even larger group of low-wage workers. What’s more, the GAIN Act proposes to nearly double the EITC for working families and increase the credit for childless workers almost sixfold.
As would be expected for such an ambitious proposal, it would be very expensive...
