Pilot Project to Assess Validation of EITC Eligibility with State Data

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) annually delivers over $60 billion to low-income working families. The Office of Management and Budget identifies the EITC as having the highest improper payment rate among 13 high error programs. We explore whether state SNAP and TANF administrative data can be used by IRS to reduce erroneous payments and target outreach efforts. Too few EITC claimants receive TANF to make the TANF data useful. SNAP data are unlikely to be useful during pre-refund audits, but may be helpful in audit case selection or in flagging erroneous EITC claims for people without custodial children.