Working Paper: NBER ID: w28398
Authors: Jacob Goldin; Tatiana Homonoff; Rizwan Javaid; Brenda Schafer
Abstract: Governments and non-profits devote substantial resources to increasing take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) through educational outreach. We study a different approach: policies that encourage tax filing. In a large field experiment, we find that IRS letters about free tax preparation modestly increased filing, with a large share of the new filers claiming the EITC. The results suggest policies that increase filing can be an effective way to increase take-up of tax-administered social benefits, even policies that do not raise awareness or directly target the benefit in other ways.
Keywords: EITC; tax filing; social benefits; outreach; randomized controlled trial
JEL Codes: H24; I38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| IRS letters about free tax preparation (H26) | filing rates among non-filers (H26) |
| filing rates among non-filers (H26) | claiming a tax refund (H26) |
| filing rates among non-filers (H26) | claiming the EITC (H26) |
| claiming the EITC (H26) | average credit amount (G51) |