Lawmakers announced a bipartisan agreement on Tuesday to reinstate major expired tax provisions, including an expansion of the child tax credit and a renewal of business investment deductions.
Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) worked together in crafting the agreement, which Smith said would amount to over $600 billion in tax cuts.
Specifically, the plan expands the child tax credit by changing the calculation of the credit on a per-child basis to make it more generous. It also increases the maximum refundable amount per child to $1,800 in tax year 2023, $1,900 in 2024, and $2,000 in 2025.
Notably, it also indexes the credit for inflation this year and in 2025.
“American families will benefit from this bipartisan agreement that provides greater tax relief, strengthens Main Street businesses, boosts our competitiveness with China, and creates jobs,” Smith said.
In return for a bigger child tax credit, some prized business tax deductions were revived as part of the plan.
“By incentivizing R&D, this plan is also going to promote innovation and help sharpen our economic competitiveness with China and the rest of the world,” Wyden said. “My goal remains to get this passed in time for families and businesses to benefit in this upcoming tax filing season, and I’m going to pull out all the stops to get that done.”
The agreement has been a long time coming. Since the child tax credit’s American Rescue Plan expansion expired, Democrats have been trying to boost it once again. Also, both Republicans and Democrats have supported reinstating the business tax deductions.
During the pandemic, Democrats temporarily expanded the child tax credit to $3,000, with $3,600 for children under 6. They also made it fully refundable with no income requirements, meaning that the government would simply send checks to families with dependent children with no earnings from work for the full amount of the credit.
While Republicans generally don’t support fully refundable tax credits — they equate it to welfare without work — the party has been more divided on increasing the overall size of the child tax credit, and in recent years, the shift is toward favoring a bigger benefit.
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Lawmakers are hoping that they can get the legislation passed in time for the current tax filing season, although a lot of that will depend on when the bill can be pushed through.
Some Democrats are likely to be disappointed that the child tax credit wasn’t expanded even more.