Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led nine of her Senate Democratic colleagues in writing a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.-04), demanding that Republicans stop their attempt to create burdensome red tape for people claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a tax credit that supports working-class Americans. Alongside gutting Medicaid and other essential federal programs, Congressional Republicans want to make the EITC harder to claim in order to pay for tax cuts for corporations and billionaires. Nonpartisan experts have confirmed the Republicans’ billionaire tax cut bill actually raises taxes on Americans making under $30,000 per year.
“As you know, the EITC is a longstanding tax credit available for low- and moderate-income Americans that aims to promote work and provide tax relief for the working class,” wrote the Senators. “As currently written, the House reconciliation bill would direct the Treasury Secretary to establish a new process requiring taxpayers to obtain precertification from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before claiming the EITC. This new precertification program would be an additional requirement for eligible taxpayers to claim the EITC on top of existing tax filing requirements.”
They continued by outlining the hurdles that workers already face in trying to claim the EITC, writing, “nearly 20 percent of eligible workers already do not claim the EITC. Many of these workers do not claim the credit due to its complexity and because they are not aware of their own eligibility or even that the EITC exists. The House reconciliation bill’s new precertification program would thus only exacerbate the EITC’s existing shortcomings by creating more red tape and complexity for workers hoping to claim the credit. This will lead to fewer eligible workers claiming the EITC, resulting in an effective tax increase on America’s working families.”
They concluded by urging Thune and Johnson to abandon this anti-worker policy and instead improve the EITC, writing, “We urge you to work with House and Senate Republican tax writers to abandon the creation of a new precertification program and instead pursue reforms that will strengthen the EITC for American workers and families. Potential reforms include simplifying the administration of the EITC, cracking down on shady tax preparers that prey on EITC claimants, and expanding benefits for childless workers.”
In April, Senator Cortez Masto introduced legislation to expand the EITC. Her Tax Cuts for Workers Act would nearly triple the tax break childless EITC recipients receive and extend eligibility to workers under the age of 24 and over the age of 64. This expansion would give 136,000 working Nevadans an added tax break. No Republicans have supported this tax break for working people, instead choosing to push for tax breaks for corporations and billionaires.
The full text of the letter is available here.
Senator Cortez Masto has consistently supported efforts to cut taxes and lower costs for hardworking Nevadans. She helped pass critical expansions to the Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue plan, and has been fighting to permanently increase this vital relief for working families. Cortez Masto also helped pass the No Tax on Tips Act to exempt tipped wages from federal income tax through the Senate. Additionally, Senator Cortez Masto supports raising the federal minimum wage and eliminating the minimum wage gap for tipped workers nationally.
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