Tax credits are a joke to the poor

[Stargazer99]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the The DU Lounge forum).

You must be able to use a Schedule A to use tax credits. The poor usually don't have the income to be able to use a Schedule A
The middle class might benefit. But every time I hear that a tax credit will solve a problem I wonder just how dumbed down the average citizen is.
But of course if you are not poor who gives a damn, right?

[Atman]

1. The American people, by and large, are very, very dumb.

They hear they'll get a "tax credit," and it's promoted in speeches and in the media, but they never see a dime of it. They fall for this crap over and over and over again. We are perhaps the dumbest nation on Earth.

[PoliticAverse]

2. It depends on how the "tax credit" is structured. The "earned income tax credit", for example...

was designed to benefit the poor.

"Refundable" tax credits can benefit people with low or even 0 income.

[stopbush]

3. We qualified for that on a couple of occasions

but I wouldn't have known about it if I wasn't paying a guy $200 to do our taxes every year.

[Major Nikon]

4. Tax credit isn't the same as a tax deduction

Schedule A is for deductions which offset your taxable income and may or may not affect your tax liability. Tax credits offset your tax liability directly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Locking - a serious political topic like this belongs in GD, not the Lounge

Please repost there, where it should attract more discussion. Thanks.