Require People Who Claim the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit to Have a Social Security Number That is Valid for Employment

The earned income tax credit (EITC) and the child tax credit both provide assistance to certain taxpayers with low or moderate income, but the eligibility rules differ. To be eligible for the EITC, claimants and their qualifying children must all have Social Security numbers that are issued by the Social Security Administration solely to people authorized to work in the United States. (There are exceptions for some Social Security numbers issued before 2003.) By contrast, eligibility for the child tax credit currently requires only the qualifying child—not the claimant—to have a Social Security number that is valid for employment purposes. After 2025, noncitizens will be able to claim the child tax credit if they and their qualifying child have Social Security numbers (with no restriction on the reason for issuance) or individual taxpayer identification numbers, which are issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to anyone who is required to file a tax return but cannot obtain a Social Security number.

Under this option, people who are not authorized to work in the United States would not be eligible for either the EITC or the child tax credit. For both credits, taxpayers, spouses, and qualifying children would be required to have Social Security numbers issued to U.S. citizens and noncitizens authorized to work in the United States. The IRS would be authorized to deny the credits using "mathematical and clerical error" (math error) procedures when taxpayers and their children did not have Social Security numbers that were valid for employment purposes. Using math error procedures would prevent the credits from being paid to those taxpayers and would not require the IRS to take further action, although the taxpayers would retain the right to dispute the IRS's determination.