Should earned income credit be abolished?

As a Libertarian and a tax professional, I see EIC is a classic "something for nothing" handout that IRS doles out. Many unscrupulous taxpayers manipulate their reported income to hit the EIC sweet-spot and max out on the free lunch. One might also argue that the EIC regs promote folks to have kids that they cannot afford, for the sake of the federal handout.

It shudder be abolished

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest problem with the earned income tax credit is that you have to have kids to get it. This is a perverse incentive. People should think long and hard about the decision to start a family, and should only do it if they are truly dedicated and capable of supporting children. Kids raised in this sort of environment will be better suited to take care of themselves and contribute to society.

The earned income tax credit incentivizes poor and irresponsible people to have children who aren't even able to support themselves. In order to fix this problem, we should do one of two things:

1) We could extend the earned income tax credit to apply to everyone, regardless of family status; or

2) We could eliminate the credit entirely (or, at the very least, modify it so that it is nonrefundable).

I prefer the 2nd option, but I feel that the 1st would be just as effective, from an incentives point of view. It would, however, be considerably more expensive.

That doesn't make any sense. Your taxation system is weird. We get tax refunds but they only give us back what we paid in. If you earned less than $17,000 for the year, you get it all back, but otherwise you can only get a bit back for expensives incurred such as buying uniforms, driving for your work, etc.

The loopholes in the tax system need to be fixed.

and that is part of the reason we are broke.

If someone is getting the $ without any effort, then what is the motivation to improve one's situation? Does not make any sense for this hand-out to continue. It may have made some sense when it was implemented, but, the reason for it is probably non-existent. Our brilliant reps need to focus on freeloaders.

Rewarding people for being less productive has an obvious consequence. It also produces the exact opposite of its intended effect (as all liberal programs do, per Michael Savage). Not to mention how totally unfair it is. I'm for Equal Justice ---- not Social Justice.

I agree.

I think the entire tax system needs to be redone. I think flat tax or fair tax should be implemented, I think all people should keep more of what they earn and if they would close the loopholes at the top there wouldn't be the need to go after the "rich".

Abolish the IRS, and go with a flat tax.

No person should get back more than they paid in. It's a refund, not welfare or charity.