TCJA Family Provisions Offer Template for Tax Reform in 2025
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s changes to family tax policy serve as a reminder to avoid looking at tax reform provisions in a vacuum.
5 min read
Featured Articles
The Child Tax Credit: Primer
The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a partially-refundable tax credit available to parents with qualifying dependents under the age of 17. Like other tax credits, the CTC reduces tax liability dollar-for-dollar of the value of the credit.
25 min readAll Related Articles
Trade-offs of Expanding Individual Tax Credits While Repealing SALT Deduction
Expanding the generosity of tax credits for lower-income individuals can help make the tax code more progressive, but it also reduces federal revenue. Pairing a credit expansion with a tax offset may sustain federal revenue but can also hamper economic growth.
3 min read
Details and Analysis of President Biden’s FY 2022 Budget Proposals
Explore President Biden budget proposals, including tax and spending in American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan. See Biden tax and spending proposals.
12 min read
Tracking the 2021 Biden Tax Plan and Federal Tax Proposals
Taxes are once again at the forefront of the public policy debate as legislators grapple with how to fund new infrastructure spending, among other priorities. Our tax tracker helps you stay up-to-date as new tax plans emerge from the Biden administration and Congress.
1 min read
Biden Proposals Would Significantly Expand Benefits Administered Through the Tax Code
The Biden administration will have to balance the desire to increase social spending through the tax code with the need to collect revenue and have a tax system that is transparent and easy to understand.
5 min read
Closer Look at Option to Restructure EITC/CTC to Help Low-Income Households
We take a closer look at the most extensive of these proposals: restructuring the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) based on the Family Security Act proposed by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) in February.
3 min read
Tax Foundation Webinar Recaps the Complexities of the 2021 Tax Filing Season
During the pandemic, economic relief administered through the tax code exploded as Congress passed nearly $6 trillion of legislation into law. That left the 2021 tax filing season, which ended May 17, with complications that still linger.
4 min read
Joint Committee on Taxation Data Shows Federal Tax System Is Progressive
New Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) data indicates that the federal tax system is progressive, consistent with similar analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the OECD.
2 min read
Evaluating Options to Help Low-Income Households
While strong economic growth—fueled by higher levels of investment, productivity, and jobs—will lift after-tax incomes over time, policies that provide relief by immediately boosting after-tax incomes of lower-income households are also available. As lawmakers consider such policies, they should keep in mind the trade-offs among them.
4 min read
Tax Policy in the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration
In his first 100 days as president, Joe Biden has proposed more than a dozen significant changes to the U.S. tax code that would raise upwards of $3 trillion in revenue and reduce incentives to invest, save, and work in the United States.
4 min read
What to Expect During the 2021 Tax Season
The IRS recently announced the extension of tax filing and payment deadlines from April 15th to May 17th to help taxpayers navigating the many tax changes amid the pandemic and give the IRS opportunity to clear its backlog of tax returns and correspondence.
7 min read
Making the Expanded Child Tax Credit Permanent Would Cost Nearly $1.6 Trillion
As the Biden administration and Congress consider making the expanded child tax credit permanent, a nearly $1.6 trillion expansion of tax code-administered benefits, they should consider financing it in a way that doesn’t create significant headwinds to economic recovery.
3 min read
U.S. COVID-19 Relief Provided More Than $60,000 in Benefits to Many Unemployed Families
During the pandemic, an unemployment family of four previously earning $60,000 will have received $50,840 in federal and state unemployment benefits from April 1, 2020 to September 6, 2021, plus $11,400 in stimulus payments, plus $7,200 in Child Tax Credit, totaling $69,440 in combined COVID-19 relief benefits.
4 min read
The American Rescue Plan Act Greatly Expands Benefits through the Tax Code in 2021
The major tax-related benefits in the $1.9 trillion economic relief plan are a third round of direct payments, extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and a $10,200 unemployment insurance income exemption for 2020, and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
6 min read
Marginal Tax Rates on Labor Income Under the Democratic House Ways and Means Child Tax Credit Proposal
The coronavirus relief legislation passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee would significantly expand the child tax credit for 2021, from its current $2,000 maximum to a fully refundable $3,600 for children 6 and under and $3,000 for children over 6.
4 min read
Marginal Tax Rates on Labor Income Under Sen. Mitt Romney’s Family Security Act
Sen. Mitt Romney’s Family Security Act would replace the Child Tax Credit with a monthly child allowance administered by the Social Security Administration, making the benefit more generous and accessible to low-income households without earned income.
4 min read
House Ways and Means Committee Takes First Steps Toward Additional Coronavirus Relief Legislation
The House Ways and Means Committee measures would further extend the relief measures created by the CARES Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and would go further by significantly expanding existing tax credits and making changes to the international tax system.
7 min read
Congressional Democrats Propose Expanding Child Tax Credit as Monthly Payment for Pandemic Relief
House Ways and Means Democrats recently released a proposal to expand the child tax credit for one year as part of President Biden’s larger $1.9 trillion economic relief package.
5 min read
Sen. Romney’s Child Tax Reform Proposal Aims to Expand the Social Safety Net and Simplify Tax Credits
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) recently proposed the Family Security Act, which features a new, more generous child allowance for families with children while reforming other sources of aid for low-income individuals.
5 min read
Outlining a Path for Tax Policy Compromises
While a sweeping tax policy bill is unlikely in the near future, lawmakers may be able to come together on a smaller scale. Pairing better cost recovery on a permanent basis with support for vulnerable households as well as additional pandemic-related relief would help promote a more rapid return to growth and help businesses and households weather the ongoing crisis.
4 min read
Navigating the 2020 Tax Extenders in the Pandemic Economy
At the end of 2020, 33 temporary tax provisions are scheduled to expire at the federal level. These provisions generally fall under four categories: cost recovery, energy, individual, and other business provisions.
20 min read