Reply to July’s ‘Wealth’ Column

July 3, 2013 Letters from the Editor, Wealth No comments

Hello Bethany [editor’s note: Greg Ochipa penned the article about the HEART act, available here],

Thanks for your recent article “Tax Breaks for Military Families: The HEART Act of 2008.” These tax breaks seem the least we could do for our veterans.

Unfortunately, in the same week of your report, the NC Senate and House both proposed tax plans which would eliminate something called the “Earned Income Tax Credit”, a tax credit which is received by (according to the story) almost 64,000 NC military families. This should probably also reported to your readers. I copied and pasted part of the report below [full report from NCJustice.org here].

Dave Austin
Oak Island

“Both the North Carolina Senate and House tax plans not only offer huge tax cuts to the wealthy and profitable businesses while failing to address the state’s upside-down tax system, but will also allow the Earned Income Tax Credit to expire at the end of 2013. New analysis from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities finds that about 64,000 veteran and active-duty military families in North Carolina would be impacted by such tax plans and the expiration of the EITC.

The NC Senate will debate a tax plan later today that will increase the tax load on tens of thousands of low-income soldiers, veterans, and their families while the wealthiest taxpayers and profitable corporations get a tax break. More than 78,000 military families across the state benefit from federal tax credits for working families, including the EITC and the Child Tax Credit. The EITC and CTC together keep more than 140,000 military families across the country from falling below the poverty line. They also reduce the severity of poverty for another 800,000 members of military families, and can increase opportunity for their children.

Nearly 64,000 of these families also receive the state EITC, a significant anti-poverty tool. If the EITC is allowed to expire, these families will see their taxes increase by as much as $272 a year. Worst yet, many of these military families may be directly affected by the unemployment cut-off, as they are no longer for extended benefits.”