There is no situation where you can make money from the tax system. At most you can only enjoy cashing in on tax losses against current tax liability.

Getting a refund from your filing just means that you overpaid during the course of the year, hence the term 'refund'.

Sorry, that's wrong. Because of tax credits, many people make money from the US tax system. Here, read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/110492/millions-of-am...

> 15 million American households ... receive more cash from the IRS than they contribute in federal income taxes and employment taxes.

I stand corrected. Man that is kind of messed up.

Even if you support that net activity, which is essentially a public welfare, it doesn't belong in the tax code.

I wonder if we'll ever see the day when all of this taxation complexity is unwound and you can actually cleanly see how policy changes affect everyone.

Yeah -- it is. Like you say, many of the programs are well-meaning (education, help for the poor, green energy) -- but would be much better served through simple grants rather than tax credits.