Over the course of the last several decades, Congress has given the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) responsibility for administering a range of credits and deductions for individuals and businesses. The IRS conducts numerous education and outreach programs as well as releases other resources designed to help taxpayers understand and claim these tax benefits. However, many individuals and families remain unaware of particular credits and deductions or face barriers that deter them from claiming the full amount for which they are eligible. As part of its strategic operating plan, the IRS has pledged to help taxpayers understand and claim appropriate credits and deductions. To design better strategies to support eligible taxpayers in claiming credits and deductions, the IRS and decision makers first need to understand where taxpayers are not fully claiming credits and deductions and the barriers that may impact claiming behavior. To ground these discussions, the IRS has begun developing approaches to measure uptake by eligible taxpayers and to estimate the share of eligible taxpayers who do not claim credits and deductions for which they are eligible. In the inaugural year of releasing aggregate estimates of the tax credits and deductions gap—the amount of credits and deductions for which taxpayers are eligible but did not claim, irrespective of whether those taxpayers filed tax returns—the IRS focused on a subset of fully or partially refundable credits for individuals. As this work continues in the coming years, the IRS plans to expand the set of credits and deductions examined and continue to refine the methodologies used to estimate the credits and deductions gap. This work will feed into other efforts by the IRS to increase awareness of credits and deductions and remove barriers to claiming. Overall, this will inform and complement other IRS’s efforts to prevent inadvertent errors, fraud, and abuse. Papers in this series generally do not undergo the extensive review and editorial process accorded official IRS publications. Instead, these working papers are intended to make results of research available to others and to encourage discussion on a variety of topics. As a result, papers may be occasionally revised or updated. Tax Year 2022 Credits and Deductions Gap: Summary Report PDF Tax Year 2022 EITC Credits and Deductions Gap Estimate for Filers Using IRS Administrative Data PDF Tax Year 2022 CTC and ACTC Credits and Deductions Gap Estimates for Filers Using IRS Administrative Data PDF Tax Year 2021 and Tax Year 2022 Education Tax Credit Underclaims for Filers and Nonfilers PDF Tax Year 2021 EITC Participation Results and IRS-Census Match Methodology PDF Tax Year 2020 CTC and ACTC Participation Results and IRS-Census Match Methodology PDF
