preview

How The Income Tax Credit Is The Land Of The Free

Better Essays

Introduction
The United States of America is considered the land of the free; however, I view it as the land of working people. Work ethic is one of the most important characteristics of our great country. Studies have shown that our people are overworked and overstressed. People are working longer hours and more years than ever before. I believe the best way to encourage the world of work is to open the window of opportunity and reward. This was the mindset of the government when they establish Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This program was established to reward low and moderate income workers through the tax system to continue to encourage work. The central idea of Earned Income Tax Credit is a work-oriented program that provides a …show more content…

The goals include the following: national security, economic stability, and poverty alleviation. They used these taxes to form a refund system to benefit workers and give them a desire to work. With a desire to work, this would reduce the amount of people receiving public assistance from the government.

b. History
The central idea of this program was first proposed in the early 1970s. It was originally signed by President Ford under the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 to combat the issue of poverty. The goal of the first Earned Income Tax Credit was to provide a temporary tax credit to low income workers. During this time period, period learned the definition of inflation. The price of goods and resources were on the rise and people could no longer afford them. For example, social security tax and the price of milk had increased dramatically. This earned income tax credit equaled about 10 percent of the first 4,000 dollars of any earnings. The federal system saw the benefits of this program and enforced extension laws. The extension law period of this program was from 1975 to 1977. Later, they decided to enforce a permanent tax credit in 1978. The act responsible for making this a permanent program was called the Revenue Act of 1978. This act also increased the maximum credit to $500; the eligibility limit was then changed to $10,000.
The original program has been modified several times. In the late 1980s, President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act

Get Access