[sam_paine]

Well, people who get refunds still pay taxes, they just don’t seem to know it.

I think the point is with EIC and other negative taxes he's talking about getting more than paid in.

and another 64.7 million who get refunds in excess of what was owed.

[MeganC]

“and another 64.7 million who get refunds in excess of what was owed.”

That’s just a bit of hyperbole there.

If you have, say, $3,000 witheld from your paycheck for Federal taxes and you owe $1,000 then you get a $2,000 refund. Which is a refund in excess of what you owe. It doesn’t mean anything wrong happened it just means you overpaid during the year and you got a refund.

Now there are also low income people who get tax credits in excess of what they owe and they end up getting payments from the IRS instead of a tax bill.

But a tax credit is not a refund.

[doug from upland]

That is how I interpreted it.