Do people know they can file a W-5 and not wait for EIC refunds?

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I'm reading David Shipler's book, The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Shipler was on a panel at a seminar John Edwards held at UNC.

One of the first issues Shipler talks about is the EIC. He writes about how tax preparers like H&R Block don't inform people that they can file a W-5 which allows them to get the EIC during the tax year rather than wait to file a return and recover it after January.

The big reason they don't do it, Shipler suggests, is because they make so much money in fees and interest or their "2 day returns." If people filed W-5s, they wouldn't all rush to tax preparers in January to get the EIC. (And the savings for the poor would be huge.)

Shipler also interviewed two heads of unions in DC whose members often have incomes that trigger the EIC (about 33K with a child). Neither of them knew about the W-5.

So, I was wondering:

[Mugweed]

1. Who uses a tax preparer?

Can't read the form? Can't do math? The only reason these people exist is the abhorrent laziness of the general public.

Do your own damn taxes. Read a little. Research a little. Don't tell me you have no free time.

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2. According to Shipler, the audit rate for EIC filers is high enough that...

people who claim it either have been audited or they know someone who has been audited because of it. And when you don't have money and you get audited and they tell you that you owe 1000 bucks and they seize your savings account to satisfy the debt, well that gets a lot of people to pay $100 for a preparer.

Also, the only way to get the two-day return is to go to a preparer. So people walk in the door thinking they're going to get the return 5 weeks earlier than normall without realizing that it's really a loan with an anualized interest of something like 500%.

Sometimes, they need the money so urgently that the figure the interest and the fees make it worth it.

The poor aren't stupid and lazy. That's another point Shipler makes. There's such a huge cultural bias agains the poor. In making the point that many in America think poverty is a sign of moral weakness, he quotes Juddy Woodruff, who, when moderating the Republican presidential primary debates in 2000, asked Alan Keyes why he thought immorality was on the upswing when all its indicators -- crime, out of wedlock births and welfare -- were down. Crime, single moms and POVERTY = immorality??? Lord help us. In facr, Woodruff's attitude is about 180 degrees from what the bible says about the poor. Woodruff's attitudes are a sign of immorality! Get thee to a church, Judy!

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3. I was wondering, since your post reveals attitudes which Shipler meant to

get people to rethink, does my reply (citing points Shipler makes in the book) change your thinking at all?

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4. Hello?