United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1995-03-31 monographic deposited born digital 49 p. GA 1.13:GGD-95-122BR https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR P0b002ee18039795e f:gg95122b DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR GGD-95-122BR Tax administration Noncompliance Income taxes Tax credit Illegal aliens Fraud Erroneous payments Eligibility criteria Disadvantaged persons Statistical methods Earned Income Tax Credit IRS Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program IRS Earned Income Credit Compliance Initiative Tax Compliance Act of 1995 Briefing Report GGD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) provided information on Earned Income Credit (EIC) noncompliance and the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) actions to control EIC noncompliance; (2) reviewed the potential impacts of changes in EIC eligibility criteria; and (3) provided information on how many illegal aliens receive EIC and the administration's proposal to exclude illegal aliens from EIC.<p/>GAO found that: (1) reliable IRS noncompliance measures for the EIC program do not exist and reliable data on the current extent of noncompliance is unavailable; (2) in 1988, about 42 percent of recipients received too much EIC and about 32 percent could not document their EIC entitlement; (3) in a sample of 1994 electronic returns, 29 percent of these recipients received too much EIC and 13 percent deliberately claimed too much EIC; (4) IRS actions to detect erroneous EIC claims include developing improved criteria for detecting multiple use of the same social security number (SSN) and valid SSN for qualifying children; (5) adding taxpayers' wealth and other income sources as EIC eligibility criteria could produce $318 million to a few billion dollars in EIC savings; (6) the additional EIC eligibility criteria would increase EIC complexity and the administrative burden of collecting needed data and treating similar taxpayers equally; (7) IRS does not know how many illegal aliens receive EIC, since it does not prohibit them from claiming EIC or require them to identify themselves on IRS forms; (8) administration and legislative proposals would exclude illegal aliens from EIC eligibility; and (9) the administration's proposal would require all EIC claimants to have valid work-related SSNs and permit streamlined IRS procedures to enforce the requirement. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR/html/GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR.pdf GAO/GGD-95-122BR https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-95-122BR Briefing Report GAO/GGD-95-122BR; Earned Income Credit: Targeting to the Working Poor; Tax administration Noncompliance Income taxes Tax credit Illegal aliens Fraud Erroneous payments Eligibility criteria Disadvantaged persons Statistical methods Earned Income Tax Credit IRS Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program IRS Earned Income Credit Compliance Initiative Tax Compliance Act of 1995