Purging the Marriage Penalty – IOTW Report

Purging the Marriage Penalty

Wednesday, 15 February 2017, 18:30 MJA Uncategorized 17

CNS: A Valentine’s Day present from the federal government? It could happen. No, I’m not talking about flowers or candy. I’m talking about getting rid of the “marriage penalty” that’s built into one of our biggest welfare programs.

That program is the Earned Income Tax Credit. The EITC is the nation’s second largest means-tested cash welfare program. EITC, unlike other welfare programs, is structured to give incentives to work. But reforms are needed to help it better achieve that purpose — and to ensure that it doesn’t discourage marriage.

EITC provides “refundable” tax credits to low-income individuals. What’s a “refundable tax credit,” you may ask? It’s simply a cash welfare grant to individuals who have no federal income tax liability.

Historically, around two-thirds of the families with children receiving the EITC are single parents, and one-third are married couples, according to welfare expert Robert Rector. The average value of an EITC payment to a family with children was $2,919.

Now, there are several problems with the EITC program that need to be addressed. Fraud is rampant, for one thing. Erroneous overclaims account for at least a quarter of the $59 billion in annual EITC spending.  MORE

17 Comments on Purging the Marriage Penalty

  5. Wow…. TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT SCAM RATE? And fixing that isn’t priority number one? Since Day-One, it’s become a cottage industry to claim each others’ kids, and nobody up the IRS food chain dares ask for proof, because it would smack of the Big Old Gummint going after to little fish and really, really seriously damage to IRS’s (cough! cough!) reputation! So, 15-20 billion a year flows into the pockets of the scammers.

    The marriage penalty cuts across all kinds of programs, from 0bamacare subsidies, to WIC, Section-8 and everything else. This was by INTENT, as part of LBJ’s effort to replace Jim Crow with The Great Society.

  6. Taxes in itself is a penalty to pay for all the Unconstitutional Agencies, laws, regulations and policies.

    But by all means we must keep funding Planned Parenthood, failed education policy, EPA, Global warming, obamacare, green energy, PBS, Labor relations commission, building Mosques in Islamic countries, open borders, illegal immigrants, 7th century Islamic refugees, fraudulent EBT cards, government corruption, Obama phones, tin-pot dictators, the UN and oh yes, Harry Reid’s Cowboy Poetry and all the other Congressional Bullshit research and grants.

  11. About 1980, Mobil Oil was training several Saudi chemical plant workers in Southeast Texas at some of their facilities. One of those rotten bastards got drunk and killed my former junior high science teacher with his automobile. The sorry raghead was back in Saudi Arabia within 48 hours and that was the last anybody heard about him. I hate those bastards and the people who allowed him to leave the country without paying for what he had done.

  14. Your Social Security Card – did you know?
    History Lesson on Your Social Security Card

    Just in case some of you young whippersnappers
    (& some older ones) didn’t know this. It’s easy to
    Check out, if you don’t believe it. Be sure and show
    It to your family and friends. They need a little history
    Lesson on what’s what and it doesn’t matter whether
    You are Democrat or Republican. Facts are Facts.
    Social Security Cards up until the 1980s expressly stated
    The number and card were not to be used for identification
    Purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now
    Has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway
    And the message, NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION, was removed.

    Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
    Security (FICA) Program. He promised:
    ��
    1.) That participation in the Program would be
    Completely voluntary,

    No longer Voluntary
    ��

    2.) That the participants would only have to pay
    1% of the first $1,400 of their annual
    Incomes into the Program,

    Now 7.65%
    On the first $90,000
    ��

    3.) That the money the participants elected to put
    Into the Program would be deductible from
    Their income for tax purposes each year,

    No longer tax deductible
    ��

    4.) That themoney the participants put into the
    Independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the
    General operating fund, and therefore, would
    Only be used to fund the Social Security
    Retirement Program, and no other
    Government program, and,

    Under Johnson the money was moved to
    The General Fund and Spent
    ��

    5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never
    Be taxed as income.
    ��
    Under Clinton & Gore
    Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed
    ��
    Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are
    Now receiving a Social Security check every month —
    And then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
    The money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put
    Away –you may be interested in the following:
    ��
    ———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— —-
    ��
    Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the
    Independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it into the
    General fund so that Congress could spend it?

    A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically
    Controlled House and Senate.
    ��
    ———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— —
    ��
    Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
    Deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

    A: The Democratic Party.
    ��
    ———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— —–
    ��
    Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
    Security annuities?

    A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
    ‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the
    Senate, while he was Vice President of the US
    ��
    ———— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— –
    ��
    Q: Which Political Party decided to start
    Giving annuity payments to immigrants?
    ��
    AND MY FAVORITE:

    A: That’s right!

    Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party.
    Immigrants moved into this country,and at age 65,
    Began to receive Social Security payments! The
    Democratic Party gave these payments to them,
    Even though they never paid a dime into it!
    ��
    ———— — ———— ——— —– ———— ——— ———
    ��
    Then, after violating the original contract (FICA),
    The Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans
    Want to take your Social Security away!

    And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!
    ��
    Actions speak louder than bumper stickers

  16. Marrieds can file “separately” and incur no “penalty”. But most do not. Why? Because when they file jointly, they pay less than if they had filed separately. So I don’t want to hear any more nonsense about the marriage “penalty”. When you file separately, what rate of tax do you pay? Oh yeah! The same as/or worse than singles pay. If you wanna see penalty, file separately.

Comments are closed.

iOTWreport.com ©2024 ----- iOTWreport is not responsible for the content of comments. All opinions in comments are solely the commenter's.