• Why Congress, not the IRS, is more to blame for $26 billion in overpaid refundable tax credits

    Why Congress, not the IRS, is more to blame for $26 billion in overpaid refundable tax credits

    Over the past 30 years, lawmakers have turned more and more to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) instead of traditional government agencies to get social and economic benefits through the tax code. As a result, the IRS now manages 21 refundable and non-refundable tax credits for individuals, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), and about two dozen more tax breaks for corporations, such as the green energy tax credits made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act.