TAP A04-032

EITC Rule Re Caring for a Child

Statement of Issue:

The EITC Committee was asked to provide comments on interpreting "caring for a child as your own" by Mark Schwimmer of the Office of Chief Counsel.

Proposal:

The feedback is a compilation of individual members' comments. Following are examples of the comments: the standard should require minimum intrusion into family's privacy and decision-making about child rearing; taxpayers claiming qualifying children who meet the other requirements should be presumed to be caring for the claimed child(ren) as their own; taxpayers should be required to have engaged in four or five categories of nurturing activities (with examples provided).

The TAP director received the following feedback by email:
“I am very impressed with what the TAP subcommittee put together so quickly. It was important to get their input in such a timely fashion. I am confident that all of us in counsel will look at these closely. Thanks for arranging the logistics for the conference call and the written comments. This was definitely a worthwhile exercise.”

The EITC Director later reported that subsequent legislation deleted the “cares for” language from the new definition of “qualifying child,” negating the need for a ruling on the topic.