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In tax year 2014, according to a report published by the Internal Revenue Service, the federal government hauled in a then-record $1,377,797,136,000 in individual income taxes. Nonetheless, of the 148,606,578 individual income tax return filers that year, 52,062,499 (or 35 percent) filed what the IRS calls “nontaxable returns,” which means they paid no net individual income taxes. Among these 52,062,499 filers who did not pay income taxes in 2014, according to Table 3.3 in the report, were 31,129,405 filers who also received $90,276,007,000 in payments from the federal government for “refundable” tax credits. “In total, taxpayers claimed $105.6 billion in...

The neediest Americans will be short $100 billion in delayed tax refunds at a time when they're really counting on it. Chaos may ensue, an issue neither presidential candidate is addressing. In June, I sounded the alarm on How Congress is About to Screw Up the Economy in an Unprecedented Way. The more we learn about the PATH Act of 2015, however, the louder this alarm needs to be. First, a short primer on what's happening. The PATH Act stands for Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes. As a headline, it sounds commendable and does include legislation for more than $620...

The Inspector General for the IRS said Thursday that the tax collection agency continues to be at risk of paying out billions of dollars in fraudulent Earned Income Tax Credit payments each year, and that there's nothing the IRS can do about it. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released a report that said almost 25 percent of EITC payments issued last year should not have been issued. That amounts to $15.6 billion in payments under a program that's meant to boost low and moderate-income people and families.

Taxpayers could be losing up to $6000 of they don't apply for a certain tax credit, Channel 9's Steve Barrett reported. Volunteers from Heart of Florida United Way's (HFUW) "Financially Fit" are going door to door to some homes in Central Florida to make sure taxpayers are aware of the Earned Income Tax Credit. The group said it is also making sure low-income taxpayers know that they qualify for free tax assistance. "It's around $6,000 that they can get for the Earned Income Tax Credit. It's based on your income and the number of people in your household. Then, getting...

For about a year, Dauhn Minus has been struggling to pay her utilities bill, which, at times, she said runs well over $300. "That's a lot of money for an electric bill," said the 52-year-old West Palm Beach resident. The main reason their bill is so high is because the air conditioning unit is 15 years old and working overtime to cool their two-bedroom home. But it can't do the job properly since Minus' home wasn't energy efficient. "I would have my AC on at 70 degrees, but it was reading 85 degrees in my house," Minus said. "I was...

....I can't talk specifics about my time at the IRS, but here are some generalities. Those claiming EITC also qualify for other so-called refundable credits (how can something be refundable when nothing is paid in the first place?). The typical 1040 would show an income of between $12,000 to $18,000 for the year. It was usually accompanied by one W-2 with the income earned almost always by a female. With other refundable credits listed, a "refund" would be claimed of between $6,000 and $9,000. And these people believe that is their money; they have a right to it. I fielded...

April 13, 2007 IRS Caters To Illegal Immigrants Illustrating a schizophrenic relationship between two major government agencies, a record number of illegal immigrants will file taxes with the Internal Revenue Service before next week’s deadline as they avoid a Homeland Security Department that supposedly strives to deport them.The bizarre contradiction among two federal agencies sends mixed messages about the U.S. Government’s seriousness in enforcing its own laws, with one agency threatening to crack down on illegal aliens and the other actually accommodating the same violators.About a decade ago the IRS created a special Individual Tax Identification Number (TIN) for...

'Grand bargain' reached on immigration: US senator 12 minutes ago Talks between US lawmakers and President George W. Bush's administration have produced the outlines of a "grand bargain" on proposed immigration reform, a Republican senator said on Tuesday. "We have come to an agreement on what we have called a, quote, 'grand bargain,' unquote, which is the outline of an immigration bill," said Senator Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), number two on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the lawmaker said the final text of the compromise still had to be worked out and called on the leader of the...

The demorats keep saying that the poor don't participate in the tax cuts and that they DO pay taxes via the payroll tax (ss/medicare). But the rats never mentiong the 'Earned Income (tax) Credit'. After finding brochure on a left activist website on how to encourage people to sign-up for the program, pdf file HERE ,it seems to me that not only do people that qualify under the table in the document pay very little, if any, income tax, they also pay very little if any payroll tax! Am my assumption wrong here? Why aren't we beating the dems over...