Tax Filing and Take-Up: Experimental Evidence on Tax Preparation Outreach and EITC Participation

34 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2021 Last revised: 4 Feb 2023

See all articles by Jacob Goldin

Jacob Goldin

Stanford Law School

Tatiana Alexandra Homonoff

Cornell University; Cornell University; New York University (NYU) - Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Rizwan Javaid

Government of the United States of America - Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Brenda Schafer

Government of the United States of America - Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Date Written: January 2021

Abstract

Governments and non-profits devote substantial resources to increasing take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) through educational outreach. We study a different approach: policies that encourage tax filing. In a large field experiment, we find that IRS letters about free tax preparation modestly increased filing, with a large share of the new filers claiming the EITC. The results suggest policies that increase filing can be an effective way to increase take-up of tax-administered social benefits, even policies that do not raise awareness or directly target the benefit in other ways.

Suggested Citation

Goldin, Jacob and Homonoff, Tatiana Alexandra and Homonoff, Tatiana Alexandra and Javaid, Rizwan and Schafer, Brenda, Tax Filing and Take-Up: Experimental Evidence on Tax Preparation Outreach and EITC Participation (January 2021). NBER Working Paper No. w28398, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3776968

Jacob Goldin (Contact Author)

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States

Tatiana Alexandra Homonoff

Cornell University ( email )

Policy Analysis and Management
134, Martha Van Rensselar Hall
Ithaca, NY 14850
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.human.cornell.edu/bio.cfm?netid=tah96

Cornell University ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States

New York University (NYU) - Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service ( email )

The Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street, Second Floor
New York, NY 10012
United States

Rizwan Javaid

Government of the United States of America - Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ( email )

1111 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20224
United States

Brenda Schafer

Government of the United States of America - Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ( email )

1111 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20224
United States

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