The Costs and Benefits of Expanding the Empire State Child Tax Credit in New York City
Research finds that cash and near-cash benefits increase children’s health, education, and future earnings while also decreasing costs with respect to health, child protection, and criminal justice. We find that expanding the Empire State Tax Credit to $1,000 per child for all children in New York City under 17, with the exception of high-income families, would cost about $1.1 billion and would generate about $9.8 billion in benefits to society.
The Costs and Benefits of Expanding the Empire State Child Tax Credit
Research finds that cash and near-cash benefits increase children’s health, education, and future earnings while also decreasing costs with respect to health, child protection, and criminal justice. We find that expanding the Empire State Tax Credit to $1,000 per child for all children in New York State under 17, with the exception of high-income families, would cost about $2.7 billion and would generate about $26.2 billion in benefits to society.
A Poverty Reduction Analysis of the American Family Act
This supplemental fact sheet provides an analysis of poverty reduction under the American Family Act by children's age, children's race and ethnicity, children's family characteristics, as well as state-level estimates.
A Better Child Tax Credit During the Covid-19 Crisis
Early federal pandemic relief efforts did not focus on children. The Child Tax Credit can be made more generous, reach the one-third of children currently left out, and be delivered monthly to support children through the immediate crisis and beyond.
Children Left Behind in Larger Families: The Uneven Receipt of the Federal Child Tax Credit
Building on our previous work, this brief examines the variation in Child Tax Credit receipt by family size. The findings show that children in larger families are more likely to be left out of the full Child Tax Credit than children in smaller families because the earnings required to access the full credit increases with the number of children in the family.
Comparing Recent Income Maintenance Proposals
As we approach the 2020 Presidential election, we compare recent income maintenance proposals and discuss how design affects costs and poverty impacts.
Children Losing Out: The Geographic Distribution of the Federal Child Tax Credit
Building off of previous work, this brief examines the variation in Child Tax Credit receipt by state and congressional district, finding that children in areas where incomes are lower and poverty rates are higher are those most likely to be left out. These results suggest that proposals to extend the Child Tax Credit to families who are currently losing out could have a substantial impact on child poverty in the United States.
Left Behind: The One-Third of Children in Families Who Earn Too Little to Get the Full Child Tax Credit
The current federal Child Tax Credit provides up to $2,000 per child per year to qualifying children, but low-income families lose out because they do not have enough earnings to qualify for the full benefit. This brief documents who is currently “left behind” in terms of realizing the full benefits of the federal Child Tax Credit because of the CTC’s earnings requirement, finding that those left out are disproportionately children of color, those in families with young children, those with single parents, and those who reside in rural areas.
The Case for Extending State-level Child Tax Credits to Those Left Out
In a joint report with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy we find that expanding the Child Tax Credit at the state level could lift millions of children out of poverty and help families who benefited little or not at all from the 2017 federal expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
A Child Tax Credit in California: Correcting Inequities Created by the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act Would Cut Deep Child Poverty by Nearly One-Third
Correcting inequalities in the Child Tax Credit created by the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act would cut deep poverty among children in California by nearly a third
Expanding the Child Tax Credit would Cut Child Poverty Nearly in Half
We find that in a simulation of the Bennet-Brown proposal to expand access to the Child Tax Credit to those at the bottom of the income distribution and boost the value of the credit for all eligible families would cut child poverty nearly in half.
Using the EITC and CTC to Smooth Income Instability: Potential Effects of a “Lookback” on Poverty
We examine the potential effects of a “lookback” provision on poverty which would allow EITC and CTC claimants to look back one year when filing taxes to maximize their credit and smooth earnings instability.