@Baldimo,
No, that is your unsubstantiated claim. It really has nothing to do with reality.
Let's look at a fictional family of 4 making $30,000 a year.
If they use the standard deductions, they will have an AGI of about $4750 which would give them a 10% income tax of $475.
They would then be eligible for a EITC of $4046.
They would have paid in 2175 for FICA on the wages.
That means just using those numbers they would have received $1375 more back than they paid in.
But there are several caveats before we assume the government took in less revenue than they paid in. The employer would have also paid in $2175 in FICA. Which would mean the government took in $800 in taxes based on the family. Do we count the total FICA or not?
But if we look at the family, their AGI was less than $5000 dollars. According to the IRS about 8% of filed returns had an AGI of $5000 or less. Not all of those will have filed for the EITC. But families earning more than $30,000 would be eligible for the EITC so let's look at a family of 4 making $40,000.
A family of 4 making $40,000 will have about $14750 for an AGI. We will call it $1475 in income taxes and ignore the little bit that would be taxed at 15% instead of 10%. They will have paid $2900 in FICA. Because of the sliding scale their EITC has been reduced to $1929. That means they pay $2446 in Federal income and FICA taxes after we subtract EITC.
A family of 4 making $35,000 would pay a little over $500 in income tax and FICA after EITC while having an AGI of about $9750.
Bottom line is the 7.9% number seems very realistic since not everyone at the lowest incomes earns the EITC credit. There are about 17% of tax returns that would even be eligible for the EITC and many of those would still end up paying taxes.
