Credits, Collections and Refunds

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t shut down, but… fallout remains over the President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and their effect on low-income tax breaks. Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch wants the Administration to say how many immigrants protected from deportation would receive Social Security numbers. He doesn’t believe the Social Security Administration’s projection of 16 million. Meanwhile, Representative Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) introduced a bill to require a Social Security number in order to receive the Child Tax Credit. That would prohibit children of undocumented immigrants from receiving the assistance. Last week, Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) introduced a bill to block undocumented immigrants from qualifying from the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Governors want action on online sales tax legislation. House Speaker John Boehner blocked action on the Marketplace Fairness Act last year, but the National Governors Association wants him to reconsider. The bill would have clarified state  authority to collect sales tax on purchases from out of state retailers. The Hill reports that NGA executive director Dan Crippen wrote, “We know changes will be made to the legislation, but the basic principles of federalism and the goals of collecting what is owed, avoiding new or higher taxes and leveling the playing field for all sellers must guide the process.”

Dynamic scoring isn’t delivering the hoped-for goods. The Tax Foundation scored the Rubio-Lee tax reform plan using its own model. It concluded the plan would still lose $1.7 trillion over 10 years though it would generate added revenue after the first decade. Even with the foundation’s aggressive assumptions about how much the capital stock would increase in response to the plan’s tax cuts, it still falls far short of paying for itself any time soon. At the same time, GOP lawmakers may pull a plan to make permanent bonus depreciation for business investment because it to is likely to lose revenue, even with a dynamic score. TPC’s Howard Gleckman concludes “dynamic scoring may disappoint even its strongest admirers.”

IRS-certified volunteers helped US taxpayers claim $3.9 billion in refunds last year. The IRS continues to seek volunteers for this tax filing season at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly sites. The IRS also seeks volunteers to serve on its Taxpayer Advocacy Panel: Its mission is to improve IRS services.

Today on the Hill. The Senate Budget Committee holds a hearing on the merits of a balanced budget. The panel will hear from John Engler of the Business Roundtable, Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and Mark Blyth of Brown University.

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