IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told lawmakers his agency is “poised to move quickly” on a bipartisan tax bill that would temporarily expand the child tax credit but cautioned taxpayers should not wait to file.
Child tax credit
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, child care costs have increased 214% since 1990, while the average family income has risen 143%.
The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a $78 billion tax package that would expand the child tax credit and reinstate some tax incentives for businesses.
“This is something that a lot of us in the policy world have already known for a long time — that when Congress failed to act on expanding or continuing the monthly child tax credit payments that were part of the American Rescue Plan, that a lot of Michigan kids and families were going to suffer as a result,” Anne Kuhnen, a tax policy analyst for the Michigan League for Public Policy (MLPP), said.
Faith leaders pressed Congress to pass voting rights legislation, a $15 minimum wage and a permanent expansion of the child tax credit during a Thursday briefing on Capitol Hill.
Researchers warn that the expiration of COVID-19 safety net policies could lead to increased financial hardship in 2022, particularly the expanded child tax credit.
President Joe Biden’s sprawling social spending and climate package has been slimmed down into a still-massive $1.75 trillion plan that he and top congressional Democrats are attempting to wrestle through after months of negotiations.
The most ambitious part of the pandemic stimulus package signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year is about to hit the bank accounts of millions of U.S. parents. Starting this week and ending in December, the vast majority of U.S. households with children will begin receiving monthly payments as a result of changes in that law expanding and reworking the federal child tax credit. Here’s how it will work.
Starting next week, many Michigan families will receive monthly payments from the federal government through the new child tax credit expansion, benefiting nearly 2 million children in the state.
The new child tax credit expansion is temporarily bringing more money — through both monthly cash payments and tax returns — to families across large chunks of the income spectrum, including those who have been financially hurting the most, both during and before the pandemic.