I Want Your MTV

"Money for nothin' and the chicks for free."  So sang Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits back in the 1980's.   Today, the Michigan League for Human Services explains how to get money for practically nothing in their just released 2010 edition of Money Back in Michigan.  Money Back in Michigan details how to file for and receive income tax deductions and refunds from nine different federal and state tax credits.  The reader is also encouraged to utilize "free" (read government subsidized) tax preparation services rather than "expensive" (read private sector) tax preparers.  In other words, under the right circumstances, a person can get money for something they didn't do, and arranged for by someone they don't have to pay.  Under Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, people with low or moderate incomes are incongruously rewarded for work that was either underpaid, not paid at all, or performed by someone else altogether.

The Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC was established in 1975 to offset the costs of social security income taxes and to provide an incentive to work.  If you have more credits than what you owe to the IRS, you get cash back.  Oddly enough, even though the EITC refund supplements your income, it does not count as income against eligibility for other government programs like Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), food stamps, low income housing, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).  Michigan, like many other states, has their own EITC which provides state refunds on top of federal dollars.

The federal Child Tax Credit will be available to families earning as little as $3000 this year, as opposed to $8500 under George Bush.  The American Opportunity Tax Credit makes post secondary education easier on the wallet.  If you spent at least $2500 on college tuition, you can get $1000 back from the feds.  The superfluously named Making Work Pay Credit provides $400 for individuals and $800 for couples filing jointly.  Other credits are the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit, the state Child Deduction, the state Home Heating Tax Credit, and the state Homestead Property Tax Credit.  Keep in mind that these are the kinds of tax credits and incentives that President Obama offers as his bona fides when talking with Republican lawmakers.

Lest I make too much fun of President Obama for his tax giveaways, we have our own progressive-in-chief Governor Granholm.  Under her watch, Michigan has enacted tax credits that give money back to renters for heat, which may have even been included in their rent and payed for by their landlord.  Renters may also receive refunds for taxes paid on property they don't even own.  It doesn't get any better than that.  No wonder then that over the last eight years, under Jennifer Granholm, Michigan has slid to the bottom of most lists you can find.

While the EITC can put much needed money back into a community, it's really only money that was once there, taxed, and then redistributed.