Discrimination by Fed through tax code/IRS

[John Hodgden]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
In applying for EIC. I am retired and on pension + S.S.; The form automatically assumes that retired people, who worked for and earned their pension, are automatically exempt from the same expenses experienced while rearing their grandkids and therefore are deliberetly shafted out of any EIC benefits afforded other parents who punch a time clock for their living. I earned $23,000 taxable income but because it is not "earned income" it cannot be counted towards the cost of raising my four grandkids and if I had had earned income, my retirement would have been deducted from it. This is blatant age discrimination against retirees who have had to take over raising their grandkids, a status that needs just a much help as the wage earner if not more so.

Who do you complain too? Who takes action against the Fed for this in-your-face discrimination? Can a formal complaint be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court as one of the checks/counterchecks of the Federal Government?

PS: I have no idea what "Tags" are or "Trackbacks" or what "Icons" have to do with all this! That's why they're blank!

 

[FlyingRon]

It's not discrimination. You can lobby congress to change the tax code to your benefit, but in this case it's not likely to happen. The purpose of the EITC is to not to just dole out money to those raising kids but to give an INCENTIVE to those folks to WORK.

 

[xylene]

your pension is not earned income.

it is unearned income.

This is not a value judgment - it just means income derived from sourced other than employment.

The earned income tax credit impacts earned income.

I agree that grandparents raising grandkids don't get the support they deserve, but that does not make the universally applied definitions of type of income inherently ageist. Inequality of outcome does not mean a law is discriminatory in a way that could be used to overturn it.