Several U.S. presidents have raised the Child Tax Credit (CTC), with significant expansions occurring under Presidents Trump, Biden, and Bush. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by Donald Trump doubled the maximum credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child. The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, signed by Joe Biden, temporarily increased it to $3,000–$3,600.
President Donald Trump signed his "big beautiful" spending bill into law on July 4. One provision is an increase to the maximum child tax credit, raising it from $2,000 per eligible child to $2,200 beginning in 2026.
The new Child Tax Credit is in addition to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (tax credits President Clinton protected during the balanced budget negotiations). President Clinton also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit to give 15 million working families tax relief.
In 1987, Congress created a bipartisan National Commission on Children tasked with developing policies for the benefit of children and families. Its final report included many policy ideas, including what would eventually become the Child Tax Credit.
They overwhelmingly opposed Democrats' expansion of the credit that provided families with monthly checks to pay bills and cut childhood poverty in half. Faced with this life-changing data, they refused to help us extend the expanded benefit and allowed it to expire.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), with efforts led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ivanka Trump, made three major changes to the CTC: It doubled the amount per qualifying child to $2,000. It made up to $1,400 of the credit refundable.
Although these changes were scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, the FY2025 reconciliation law (P.L. 119-21) made them permanent. That law also permanently increased the maximum child tax credit from $2,000 per child to $2,200 per child, while indexing it to inflation.
The TCJA temporarily doubled the maximum child tax credit (CTC) from $1,000 to $2,000 per child under 17 and added a $500 nonrefundable credit for children ineligible for the $2,000 credit. The credit decreases by 5 percent of adjusted gross income over $200,000 for single parents and $400,000 for married parents.
A component of the Tax Reduction Act, EITC was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on March 29, 1975. What began as a modest means to provide financial help to working families has evolved through a series of legislative changes into one of the federal government's largest anti-poverty programs.
Enacted in 1997 and expanded multiple times with bipartisan support since 2001, the Child Tax Credit helps make the cost of raising children more affordable for families. The credit is worth up to $2,200 per eligible child (under age 17 at the end of the tax year) for 2025.
North-West vs South-East divide in family benefits
In general, family benefits per person are highest in Northern and Western Europe, and lowest in the South and East. After Luxembourg, Nordic countries top the list: Norway (€2,277), Denmark (€1,878), Iceland (€1,874), Sweden (€1,449), and Finland (€1,440).
1862 - President Lincoln signed into law a revenue-raising measure to help pay for Civil War expenses. The measure created a Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the nation's first income tax.
The Joe Manchin failure, and the larger failure
There's a very simple answer to why the child credit didn't continue: there weren't 50 senators willing to support its extension. And most public reporting suggests the main holdout was Sen. Joe Manchin.
"We passed the largest tax cuts in American history, including no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors," Trump said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
The bottom 99% also saw an average federal tax rate increase by one percentage point from 2012 to 2013, mainly due to the expiration of the Obama payroll tax cuts, which were in place in 2011 and 2012. However, for income groups in the bottom 99%, the average federal tax rate remained at or below the 2007 level.
Over the last year, lobby reports have indicated the following three myths come up as pushback against the CTC: 1) the CTC disincentivizes work; 2) the CTC is partisan; and 3) the CTC is too expensive. Here are some resources and pointers to help you respond to these common arguments against expanding the CTC.
Newt Gingrich and his Congress passed the very first Child Tax Credit, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1997. Incremental improvements were made to the credit under presidents George W. Bush (2001), Barack Obama (2009) and Donald Trump (2017). In that tradition of bipartisanship, the House passed H.R.
Established in 1986, under President Reagan and last expanded during the first Trump Administration, the Housing Credit is a proven, pro-growth tax policy with a nearly 40-year track record of leveraging private investment to increase the supply of affordable rental housing by more than 4 million affordable homes and ...
Yes, federal income tax is legally mandatory for most U.S. citizens and residents, enforced by the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), with the Supreme Court upholding its constitutionality, meaning failure to pay can lead to significant civil and criminal penalties, despite common "tax protester" arguments that the obligation is voluntary or unconstitutional. Compliance is mandatory, though the system is called "voluntary compliance" because individuals must self-report and calculate their taxes, but the requirement to do so is law.
The American Rescue Plan increased the child tax credit to $3,000 per child age seven or older and $3,600 per kids six and younger. It also raised the age limit of eligible children from 16 to 17 years old.
Effective beginning in 2018, the TCJA doubled the maximum CTC for children under 17 from $1,000 per child to $2,000 per child. The legislation specified in 2018 that up to $1,400 of the credit could be received as a refundable credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC).
These updates aim to provide tax relief for families and parents. The Child Tax Credit 2025 rate slightly increased to $2,200 per child, and the new Child Tax Credit increase 2025 offers taxpayers $1,700 in related refundable credits.
Expansion of the Child Tax Credit reduced child poverty to a record low, making it one of the most impactful policies from the American Rescue Plan.