Professor Comments on EITC Precertification

[1] I am writing to comment on draft Form 8836 from the perspective of a university-based researcher who studies homeless families and who has studied child care used by low-income families. I attempted unsuccessfully to submit these comments on your website.

[2] Burdensome documentation. The documentation required by form 8836 will be extremely burdensome to homeless families who are eligible for ETIC benefits. This is not a small group. Data from shelter records in New York and Philadelphia suggest that 3% of the entire population of these cities, and a far higher portion of poor families, reside in shelters at some point in a 3-5 year period. Data from telephone surveys suggest that 13.5 million adults in America, and nearly 20% of those who ever received public assistance, have been literally homeless at some point in their lives. Families with young children are at special risk. Families who are homeless move around a lot, both before becoming literally homeless and during the period when they are homeless. Their complex residential histories mean that documenting addresses is far more burdensome than for more stable families. A taxpayer might have to document residence with her or his child at a half dozen or more addresses over the course of a year to qualify. Homelessness and residential mobility also disrupt the relationships with agencies and individuals who could provide documentation. For example, homeless children switch schools frequently. Homeless and formerly homeless families are less likely than other poor families (even years after leaving shelter) to have a regular medical home. In New York, they are re-housed without any regard to the neighborhood from which they came, disrupting relationships with churches and community organizations. Although I doubt that any system of documentation can be devised that will not exclude a large portion of eligible families who experience homelessness, it might help to switch the order of documentation options on Form 8836 (so that having another party certify residence) is the first rather than the last option. Shelter operators should be listed as people who can provide certification.

[3] Research on child care shows that poor families are far more likely than middle class families to use family-based child care provided by relatives and neighbors, many of whom are uncertified. Most such providers will not have letterheads on which they can write. I understand that you might feel that relatives cannot be trusted to certify children's residence. But excluding child-care providers who are neighbors from the group of people who can certify that a child and parent have lived together creates an additional difficulty for low-income tax payers that it would not create for those in the middle class. Child care providers who are neighbors should not be excluded from providing documentation. Providers who do not pay taxes on their own income should be held harmless for certifying addresses for families they serve, and this information should be made explicit. It is not the family's fault if their provider does not declare his or her income, but providers will not be willing to certify families' residence if they thereby put themselves at risk.

[4] Reaching out to taxpayers. The IRS should make special efforts to reach out to taxpayers who may experience homelessness. Because such families move frequently both before entering shelter and during periods of literal homelessness, they are quite likely to have mail, including requests for pre-certification, lost. IRS should send information to every family shelter in the United States and every homeless assistance program several times per year. A study by the Urban Institute estimated that there were approximately 40,000 such programs nationwide in 1996 (not all of which serve families). The IRS should also train shelter providers in providing assistance to families.

[5] Designing the study. The study of the pre- certification process should include a sample of families experiencing homelessness, and include focus groups with those families to help the IRS understand the difficulties they have in documenting residence. However, participating families should be held harmless if they cannot provide documentation not yet required of other families.

[6] These references document the factual claims made above.