Earned Income Tax Credit
A refundable credit that phases in with earnings for lower-income working households.
JCT line: "Earned income credit". Includes $56.2B of refundable outlay effects.
JCT Table 3 puts 84% of the credit on returns under $50,000 and 92% under $60,000. Returns over $100,000 account for less than 0.2%. The most tightly bottom-targeted item in this dataset.
Of $66.9B in total benefit. JCT, Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2025-2029 (JCX-45-25), Table 3.
Structural reading
The anchor at the low-concentration end of the scale, and the clearest entry under the 'most good for least cost' view. It is included at full weight because a tool that ranked only concentrated transfers would be measuring its own selection criteria rather than the tax code. Two structural qualifications are worth stating rather than glossing: some share of the credit is captured by employers through wage adjustment in affected labour markets, and claim complexity routes a further share to paid preparers. Both are real concentrated benefits sitting inside an otherwise broadly-distributed transfer, which is precisely the kind of structure this tool exists to make visible.
Who gets it
The channels the benefit actually flows through, described by asset position, entity form and form of return. Never by named individuals.
Cost split by the concentration score. That score is a judgement rather than a published figure, so treat this as the scale of the split, not an audited allocation.
- Lower-income households with earned income
The credit phases in with wages and phases out above a moderate threshold, which caps rather than scales the benefit.
- Partial pass-through to employers via wage effects
Economic research finds some share of the credit is captured by employers through lower pre-tax wages in affected labour markets, a genuine, if indirect, concentrated benefit.
- Paid tax preparation services
Claim complexity and error-rate exposure channel a measurable share of the credit to preparers as fees before it reaches recipients.
Who pays
General taxpayers.
This transfer follows a general pattern, asymmetric organisation, sustained expert attention, and scheduled expiry dates.
How rent-seeking works →Legislative history and accountability
Enacting statutes, major amendments, recorded votes with party breakdown, and live reform proposals.
Enabling legislation
- Tax Reduction Act of 1975P.L. 94-12Mar 29, 1975
Created the credit as a temporary offset to payroll taxes for low-income workers with children.
Mixed coalitionEnacted by a Democratic Congress and signed by a Republican president. No separate roll call on this provision is recorded here.
Major amendment
- Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993P.L. 103-66Aug 10, 1993
Substantially expanded the credit and extended it to workers without qualifying children.
Party-line (Democratic)Passed without a single minority-party vote in either chamber; the Senate required a vice-presidential tiebreak. No separate roll call on this provision is recorded here.
Reform proposal
- Proposals to expand the childless worker credit
Proposals with support from both parties would raise the credit for workers without qualifying children, a group that currently receives a small credit that phases out at a low threshold.
Sources and data freshness
Published within the last year. Figures marked unverified are seed estimates that have not been reconciled line-by-line against the primary source document. See the methodology for how each score is constructed.