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Whose Child Is This? Shifting of Dependents Among EITC Claimants Within the Same Household

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Abstract

Using a panel of household level tax data, we estimate the degree to which dependents are \"reassigned\" between tax units within households, and how these reassignments affect combined tax liabilities. Reassigning dependents reduces combined tax liabilities on average, suggesting some household level coordination. Additionally, when EITC benefits expanded in 2009, reassignments increasingly involved adding a third child to tax returns to claim these new benefits. However, the subgroup reassigning towards three child tax units actually increased total household tax liabilities, suggesting that some taxpayers may prioritize minimizing their own tax burden or focus on particularly salient aspects of tax policy.

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  • Jeff Larrimore & Jacob Mortenson & David Splinter, 2017. "Whose Child Is This? Shifting of Dependents Among EITC Claimants Within the Same Household," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-089, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-89
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2017.089
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    Cited by:

    1. David Splinter, 2019. "Who Pays No Tax? The Declining Fraction Paying Income Taxes And Increasing Tax Progressivity," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 413-426, July.
    2. Bruce D. Meyer & Derek Wu & Grace Finley & Patrick Langetieg & Carla Medalia & Mark Payne & Alan Plumley, 2020. "The Accuracy of Tax Imputations: Estimating Tax Liabilities and Credits Using Linked Survey and Administrative Data," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 459-498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Emily Y. Lin & Joel Slemrod, 2024. "Gender tax difference in the U.S. income tax," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(3), pages 808-840, June.
    4. Iselin, John & Mackay, Taylor & Unrath, Matthew, 2023. "Measuring take-up of the California EITC with state administrative data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earned income tax credit; Household level tax coordination; Tax avoidance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs

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