Using the EITC and CTC to Smooth Income Instability: Potential Effects of a “Lookback” on Poverty

Though the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) are some of the nation’s most effective antipoverty policies, they track earnings and therefore mirror the instability of recipients’ earnings over the year. A one-year “lookback” is a mechanism that would help reduce this instability. A lookback provision would allow EITC and CTC claimants to look back one year when filing taxes to maximize their credit and smooth earnings instability. In this brief, the CPSP takes a first look at the potential effects of a lookback provision on poverty.