| >Is information from these social programs a necessity for filing taxes? If so, the fix is simple: have them report these numbers into the IRS. You misunderstand. The IRS implements the social program via the tax system. For example, most European countries operate some kind of universal child benefit for parents. So maybe parents can receive a weekly payment of some kind. In the U.S. this program does not exist. Instead, there is a refundable tax credit (the Child Tax Credit). When you file your taxes, you tell the IRS how many children you have, how old they are and so on and if your taxes are low enough that the credit offsets your taxes, the IRS sends you a check for the difference. Similarly, many European countries have some form of government income support for low earners; again typically paid by some social security agency. Although there is a program called TANF that does this for the most needy, the majority of benefits are delivered through another refundable tax credit (the Earned Income Tax Credit). Again you end up sending the IRS all the data necessary about why you qualify for this social program and maybe you get a check back at the end. Basically, a significant amount of the transfer payments for social programs in the U.S. are implemented directly in the tax code, so the "tax filings" that people have to make combine both income information as well as qualifications for social benefits. |
If it wasn't possible, Intuit wouldn't bother lobbying.