Congress Best Hope for Fixing Child Tax Credit Issue Facing Amish

Congressional action is the best chance for helping religious individuals who have been barred from claiming the child tax credit because they are opposed to obtaining Social Security numbers, a Taxpayer Advocate Service employee said.

Former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson asked the IRS to administratively accommodate those taxpayers by offering them a way to claim the full credit. But the agency in a March memorandum took the position that it didn’t need to provide such relief.

• “To me, that is the IRS’s public position on the issue,” said Josh Beck, a senior tax analyst with the Taxpayer Advocate ...