Earned Income Tax Credit

For years I have been hearing about this class shifting government program, so the other day when I was having my tax forms filled out at one of the local tax prep operations I decided to ask some questions about the EIC.

First question I asked of the tax prep individual is why the EIC box was not checked off on my form, and the answer "You do not qualify". Fair enough answer, but I wanted to know why I did not qualify. So I ask why do I not qualify? "You are retired". I then asked what if I am unemployed? "You might qualify if you had earned income". What is earned income? Received no real answer, so I hit the IRS website in search of an answer. Real winner here for I am more confused as to what earned income is now than before.

Any how the Earned Income Tax Credit program was first floated by the Nixon administration. Ronald Reagan dubbed it "the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress." Mind you both of these guys were from the conservative party known as Republican.

EIC is nothing more than a program to transfer wealth in this country. A bridge between the have and have nots one might say. In 2007, the U.S. Treasury paid out $49 billion to 25 million taxpayers. I dug deeper into what might happen with one who files a tax form for 2010 and this will be a possible result:

A single mother of two making $16,000 a year gets a $5,000 tax refund; if she earns $25,000 her windfall is $3,200. In either case it is a flat out gift to her from other taxpayers who earned higher wages. Absolutely a transfer of wealth program. Along with the additional benefits available to qualify for and most likely received I am poorer than she in the end.

Anyone need to put a retired person on their payroll? Guess I need to make $1.00 to qualify for EIC.