Professor John Plecnik was quoted in an article published in Tax Notes on February 7th, entitled 2017 TNT 24-2 Treasury May Lack Authority on Draft Trump Child Credit Order.  The portions of this article where Professor Plecnik is quoted are available below:

John T. Plecnik, a professor at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, said there are reasonable arguments on both sides of the debate over whether the IRS can require an SSN to claim tax credits without legislative action. Requiring an SSN could be deemed an appropriate way for the agency to use its authority to enforce tax laws, he said.

“On the other hand, one could argue that Congress knows how to require a Social Security number for claiming a tax credit when it wants to do so, given that it explicitly requires a Social Security number to claim the earned income tax credit under section 32(m) of the Internal Revenue Code,” he said. “In the absence of Congress doing the same for the additional child tax credit, you can argue that it chose not to require a Social Security number to claim that credit.”

. . . . . .

While the draft order would reduce the incentive for unauthorized immigrants to file returns because they would be less likely to receive refunds, it could substantially reduce tax credit fraud, Plecnik said. The order is “consistent with the ongoing crackdown” on such fraud, he said.

“To me, it indicates that President Trump, like presidents [George W.] Bush and Obama, is likely to continue the push for more enforcement activity in this area,” he said.

The full-text version of the article is available here: 2017-tnt-24-2-treasury-may-lack-authority-on-draft-trump-child-credit-order-_section-24-chil