[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1894 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1894

   To prohibit the implementation of discriminatory precertification 
             requirements for the earned income tax credit.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 30, 2003

Mr. Rangel (for himself, Mr. Stark, Mr. Matsui, Mr. Levin, Mr. Cardin, 
     Mr. McDermott, Mr. Kleczka, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Neal of 
 Massachusetts, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Becerra, Mr. Pomeroy, Mr. Sandlin, 
  Mrs. Jones of Ohio, and Ms. DeLauro) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To prohibit the implementation of discriminatory precertification 
             requirements for the earned income tax credit.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress hereby finds that:
            (1) Current law authorizes the Internal Revenue Service to 
        impose additional earned income tax credit eligibility 
        requirements, such as the current recertification program, only 
        in cases in which a taxpayer has made prior improper claims of 
        the earned income tax credit.
            (2) The Internal Revenue Service is planning to implement 
        an earned income tax credit precertification program that 
        differs from what is authorized under current law in that it 
        would apply to taxpayers who fall within broad categories even 
        though they made no prior improper claims for the credit.
            (3) There is no precedent in the Internal Revenue Code of 
        1986 for denying or delaying a tax refund that is apparently 
        properly claimed on a tax return merely because the taxpayer 
        meets a certain profile.
            (4) The proposed earned income tax credit precertification 
        program is an affront to our sense of fairness because 
        compliant taxpayers are treated differently solely by reason of 
        differing family structures or relationships and solely by 
        reason of the fact that they are claiming a tax benefit 
        designed to assist the working poor.
            (5) No other family-related tax benefit, such as the 
        dependency exemption or child tax credit, is subject to such a 
        precertification requirement; and there is no such 
        precertification requirement for abusive tax shelters purchased 
        by corporations or for tax benefits claimed by higher income 
        individuals.

SEC. 2. PROPOSED EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT PROFILING NOT PERMITTED.

    The Internal Revenue Service shall not implement any system of 
precertification for the earned income tax credit that applies to 
taxpayers who have not made prior improper claims unless such a system 
is hereafter specifically authorized by law.
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