AMERICAN FAMILY ACT WOULD BRING BACK EXPANDED CHILD TAX CREDIT
More than 200 House members this week signed on to legislation that would once again expand the Child Tax Credit.
The AFA would expand the amount of the CTC from $2,000 per year to $3,600 for children under 6 years old, and to $3,000 for children over 6. It would also eliminate earnings minimums for recipients. Under current law, families can be too poor to get the help of the CTC; they must have earnings of at least $2,500 to claim the credit. In another way the current CTC provides less help to families with low incomes, those with earnings above the $2,500 minimum but so low that they do not owe federal income taxes do not get the full credit; in 2023 they would get no more than $1,600 per child. The American Family Act would provide the full $3,000 – $3,600 per child even if the family has no or little earnings, and would provide monthly payments instead of requiring recipients to wait until filing their taxes to receive the benefit.
But this proposed version of an expanded CTC is new and improved over the temporary expansion passed as part of the American Rescue Plan. It would index the amount of the CTC to inflation, to preserve the value of the credit moving forward. It would extend the credit to families living in all U.S. territories. And it would guarantee that all children receive the same value of the credit in their first year of life, regardless of what month they are born.
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