Tax Policy Center

child tax credit

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Reforming child and work provisions in the federal income tax

The federal income tax is packed with provisions aimed at subsidizing and encouraging work and helping families with children. While well intentioned, they complicate the...
December 6, 2016Roberton C. Williams
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

The confusing debate over child tax credits and exemptions

In this year’s presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton’s proposal to double the child tax credit and Donald Trump’s plan replace the dependent exemption with a higher...
October 28, 2016C. Eugene Steuerle
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Clinton would increase the CTC for very low-income workers and young children

Hillary Clinton has proposed two important changes to the child tax credit (CTC). The first would phase in the credit starting with the first dollar...
October 24, 2016Elaine Maag
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Six Ways to Revise The Child Tax Credit

The child tax credit (CTC) is an important subsidy for low- and moderate income families with children. But lawmakers and policy analysts are looking at ways to reform the credit. To help understand how each of these ideas would work, the Tax Policy Center looked at six different ways to retool the
April 12, 2016Elaine Maag
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

If Banning Negligent Low-Income Households From Taking Tax Credits Is Such a Great Idea, Why Stop With Them?

Congress has banned more low-income families who file erroneous tax returns from receiving refundable credits. If lawmakers think this is such a terrific idea, why stop at low-income households? For instance, why shouldn’t Congress bar trade associations from claiming tax-exempt status if they file
January 7, 2016Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Reforming the Child Tax Credit for Low-Income Workers

Congress could significantly help low-income families with children by making current eligibility rules for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) permanent. If lawmakers allow the current threshold to expire as scheduled after 2017, families with children in the lowest income quintile will lose almost $700.
December 9, 2015Elaine Maag
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Combined Tax Rates and Creating a 21st Century Social Welfare Budget

In testimony yesterday before a joint hearing of two House subcommittees, I urged Congress to modernize the nation’s social welfare programs to focus on early childhood, quality teachers, more effective work subsidies, and improved neighborhoods. One way lawmakers can shift their gaze is by
June 26, 2015C. Eugene Steuerle
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

How Many Americans Get Government Assistance? All of Us

The other day, the Census Bureau put out a new report that concluded about one-in-five Americans received government benefits in 2012. But the study, called Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Participation in Government Programs, 2009–2012: Who Gets Assistance, takes a far too narrow view about who
June 4, 2015Howard Gleckman
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Do Senators Lee and Rubio Have a Secret Plan to Help Poor Families?

In its analysis of the tax reform plan proposed recently by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the Tax Foundation assumed the proposal would make the new personal credit ($2,000 for singles and $4,000 for married couples) fully refundable. This assumption helps explain why the group
March 27, 2015Leonard E. Burman
: TaxVox

Credits, Collections and Refunds

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t shut down, but… fallout remains over the President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and their effect on low-income tax breaks. Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch wants the Administration to say how many immigrants protected from deportation
March 11, 2015Renu Zaretsky