When I was studying tax law in law school, I remember learning that the earned income tax credit (commonly "EITC", but referred to in the report as the "anti-po

When I was studying tax law in law school, I remember learning that the earned income tax credit (commonly "EITC", but referred to in the report as the "anti-poverty earned income credit") is notorious for being filed incorrectly at a very high rate. This is due to the complexity of the credit and the fact that the people who are eligible are less likely to have a paid tax preparer. On its face, this article looks like it has "discovered" that people who claim the EITC are audited at a much higher rate than other people. This is not news to anyone who works in tax or tax policy. It would be different if they had shown that the EITC audits were not warranted — that would be very newsworthy. But if they are auditing people and finding that there are mistakes that need to be fixed, that's not evidence of wrongdoing. It could be evidence that the EITC should be simplified — something that tax policy folks have been saying for a long time.