The District of Columbia Department of Human Services says that even if you haven’t worked and haven’t filed your 2021 tax return yet, you can still get a credit of up to $3,600 if you claim it by November 15, 2022. (DCDHS). At GetCTC.org, the government has made a tool that makes it easier for families who are eligible to get credit.
The DCDHS said that getting the CTC won’t affect your ability to get other public benefits. These are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Under the Biden administration’s 2021 American Rescue Plan, the child tax credit went from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child for children over the age of six, and from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under the age of six. It also made the minimum age 17, up from 16.
You can help CCSA and CCRC help more families by making a donation in preparation of #GivingTuesday today at https://t.co/3BkfEKIg4O
— Child Care Services Association (@CCSAchildcare) November 4, 2022
The goal of the new CTC was to help families who were struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. CNBC said that by the end of 2021, about 4 million Americans who were eligible for the money still hadn’t claimed it. People said that the IRS didn’t give enough help and that it was hard to find trustworthy tax preparers.
READ MORE: Child Tax Credit, IRS Vita Programs, Cheap Gas, and More!
According to data from the U.S. census used by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the increased credit led to a big drop in child poverty between 2020 and 2021. Without the improved CTC, child poverty would have been 8.1% instead of 5.2% during the period studied, and about 2.1 million more children would have lived in low-income families.
The expanded #ChildTaxCredit cut child poverty nearly in half last year, and I’m glad my colleagues are joining me in calling for its extension this year.
We shouldn’t extend corporate tax breaks at the end of the year without also extending the CTC. https://t.co/2iiFUSRzCz
— Michael Bennet (@SenatorBennet) October 27, 2022
If the Democrats’ 2021 Child Tax Credit was made permanent, it would make Biden’s harsh economy for Main Street and working families even worse.
Analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) shows that a permanent extension of the Democrats’ partisan Child Tax Credit would:
- Cost $1.4 trillion in tax money.
- Get rid of $50 billion from the economy.
- The result would be lower wages and a loss of private investment worth $19 billion.
- Sideline 300,000 workers, pushing more Americans onto government dependence.
- Fuel Biden-Inflation by spending more money while making less and doing less work.
The economy that Biden has made is hard on Americans.
- Since President Biden took office, inflation has gone up by 13.9%.
- Since President Biden took office, real wages have gone down by 4.4%.
- Since President Biden took office, gas prices have gone up by 111 percent at their highest point.
- The average monthly mortgage payment is now 48% more than it was a year ago.
- The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, most recently by 75 basis points, which is the sixth rate
- increase since March. This is in response to the President’s claim that inflation is a crisis. Overall, the
- federal funds rate has gone up by 3.75 percent.
- This is the biggest rate increase in the last 15 years and the fastest rate increase in the last 40 years.
Moderate Democrats Want a Deal With the Gop on Tax Breaks for Children and Businesses
A powerful group of moderate House Democrats is putting pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders to reach a deal with Republicans on tax breaks for businesses and more money for child tax credits.
The New Democrat Coalition, which is made up of 99 lawmakers, wants to bring back the expanded child tax credit, which was raised from $2,000 per child to as much as $3,600 in 2021 as part of President Joe Biden’s plan to deal with a pandemic. The higher benefit, which was paid out in monthly installments instead of as part of a tax refund, ended at the end of last year.
After the midterm elections but before the new Congress takes office, such a deal could be part of a multibillion-dollar tax package. That will be the last chance for Democrats to try to get the expanded credit before the GOP is likely to take over the House. Republicans have said it’s bad because it doesn’t have to be tied to work.
📊 from @profgalloway⬇️ shows us again: poverty is a policy choice!
– 30 yrs ago 28% of US children lived in poverty
– 1993: child poverty reduced by 35% when govt. broadened its safety net
– 2017 & 2021: #ChildTaxCredit expansion took child poverty down to 11% & then record 5% pic.twitter.com/rAUs9oV4oy— End Child Poverty CA (@EndChildPovCA) November 2, 2022
The group is also trying to keep a tax break that lets companies write off research and development costs in the same year they happen. This break will end at the end of 2021, and if the law doesn’t change, companies will have to take these deductions over several years. Some of the industries that would benefit the most are those that make things and those that make medicines.
READ MORE: Connecticut Provides a Stimulus: The Second Sales Tax-Free Week Begins on Sunday
Moderate Democrats say that the economy needs both the R&D change and more help for kids.
In a letter to Pelosi and other Democratic leaders, the New Democrats say, “Both are important for long-term economic growth that benefits everyone.”
The cost of extending expiring tax breaks for businesses has been estimated at $45 billion, while a full revival of the expanded child tax break would cost about $100 billion. This number could be lowered by making smaller payments, and some Republicans have suggested linking the current $2,000 credit to inflation as a way to solve the problem.
