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.

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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.

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Example Sentences

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 • May 29, 2021

Brynjolfsson and McAfee prefer the idea of a negative income tax; this would provide the unemployed with a minimal living and the underemployed with additional cash.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 11, 2016

We have what we call Workfare, basically a negative income tax.

From Time • Oct. 26, 2016

At the moment the earned-income tax credit, a negative income tax that boosts the earnings of ill-paid parents, does little for the childless.

From Economist • Feb. 13, 2014

The negative income tax or basic benefit is often presented as a solution to the current unemployment problem.

From Definition & Reality in the General Theory of Political Economy by Colignatus, Thomas