Insights from Behavioral Economics Can Improve Administration of the EITC

66 Pages Posted: 5 Sep 2017 Last revised: 8 Nov 2018

See all articles by Leslie Book

Leslie Book

Villanova University School of Law

David Williams

Intuit

Krista Holub

Intuit

Date Written: August 31, 2017

Abstract

The IRS is a non-traditional but key player in delivering social benefits to the nation’s working poor. In fact, it administers one of the nation’s largest anti-poverty programs: the earned income tax credit (EITC). The EITC is generally praised for its role in reducing poverty and incentivizing low-wage work. While the credit has bipartisan support, the IRS continues to face strong criticism over EITC compliance issues.

The IRS has generally focused on tax return characteristics in identifying and preventing erroneous EITC claims. We believe that adding an additional focus on taxpayer characteristics may offer new opportunities to improve EITC compliance (and perhaps other areas where there is systemic noncompliance). To supplement existing approaches and build on insights that derive from a taxpayer rather than tax return-centric model of compliance, we argue that the IRS should draw from insights from the field of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology research, often grounded in insights associated with research in behavioral economics, suggests that by increasing psychological costs and the perceived likelihood of detection, people may be more truthful. We offer specific proposals for further exploration. We note that the approach has potential application in other areas of the tax law, but focus on the EITC because of its broad importance as a matter of national policy, the longstanding and persistent criticism of stubbornly high EITC error rates and the limitations of the IRS’s current approach addressing EITC compliance.

Keywords: tax administration, earned income tax credit; behavioral economics

JEL Classification: K34

Suggested Citation

Book, Leslie and Williams, David and Holub, Krista, Insights from Behavioral Economics Can Improve Administration of the EITC (August 31, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3030050 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3030050

Leslie Book (Contact Author)

Villanova University School of Law ( email )

299 N. Spring Mill Road
Villanova, PA 19085
United States

David Williams

Intuit ( email )

7535 Torrey Santa Fe Road
San Diego, CA, CA 94043
United States

Krista Holub

Intuit ( email )

7535 Torrey Santa Fe Road
San Diego, CA, CA 94043
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
203
Abstract Views
1,366
Rank
269,880
PlumX Metrics