Congress is getting ready to raise taxes on four
million low-income families, affecting nine million kids: This week,
the House of Representatives will vote on legislation which will change
the threshold for the child-tax credit, a law which was intended to
help low-income families. In many cases, the value of the tax credit
has actually declined by almost 10 percent for low-income families,
which, in effect, acts as a tax hike for these families. According to a
letter from Leonard Burman of the Urban Institute and John Karl Scholz
of the University of Wisconsin, "for many low-income families whose
earnings have not kept pace with inflation, the [child-tax credit]
provision actually magnifies the damage done by inflation." (For more
on the millions of poor families affected by the shrinking child-tax
credit, watch Left Out: The Children and Families Left Behind by the
President's Tax Proposal, a film sponsored by the American Progress
Action Fund in which parents chronicle what this missing tax credit
means to their families. [more ]
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