negative income tax

American  

noun

1. a system of income subsidy through which persons having less than a certain annual income receive money from the government rather than pay taxes to it.

---

negative income tax Cultural  

1. A plan to raise the income of the poor by direct cash subsidies. Instead of paying an income tax, the poor would receive a cash payment from the government.

---

Example Sentences

Free-market economist Milton Friedman proposed in 1962 the “negative income tax,” a version of the basic-income idea, as a replacement for public social welfare programs.

From Washington Times

President Nixon proposed replacing the entire welfare system with the Family Assistance Plan that would have operated almost like a negative income tax to put an income floor below low-income families.

From Salon

These include Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which has distributed money from the state’s oil boom since 1982; a casino dividend for members of North Carolina’s Eastern Cherokee Band of Indians starting in 1997; and 1970s experiments in “negative income tax” that provided low-income families in the U.S. and Canada with a guaranteed income via tax credits.

From Los Angeles Times

As opposed to universal income, I would favor Milton Friedman’s idea of a negative income tax.

From Los Angeles Times

Both the United States and Canada conducted pilot studies in towns and cities on negative income tax and a guaranteed annual income, respectively, during the 1970s.

From Nature