It’s a big day for more than 39 million families with children across the country. Today, the IRS will begin issuing the first-ever monthly installment of a newly expanded Child Tax Credit. The Child Tax Credit will cut child poverty significantly, meaningfully addressing racial disparities and vastly improving the lives of millions of children.
Though the Child Tax Credit has long been part of the tax code, the Biden administration significantly improved and expanded it in the American Rescue Plan earlier this year. Families with older children will now receive annual credits of $3,000 rather than $2,000, and the credit is extended to 17-year-olds for the first time. Families with children under the age of 6 will receive $3,600 to account for extra expenses during some of a child’s most formative years. For the first time, families will have the option to receive their benefits monthly rather than as an annual lump sum to account for the ongoing expenses of raising children. Most importantly, the new Child Tax Credit finally extends full eligibility to the poorest families, who previously found themselves shut out or shortchanged by the program’s cruel “phase-in” structure because their incomes were considered too low to benefit from the program the way other families could.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill.
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