This new type of monthly coronavirus stimulus checks could continue for years

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Pressure is mounting on President Joe Biden to come up with another round of stimulus checks, but there are no official talks yet on it. Some families, however, will start to get a new type of coronavirus stimulus checks from July in the form of CTC (child tax credit), and Biden wants to keep it flowing for a few more years at least.

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Coronavirus stimulus checks in the form of CTC

On Wednesday, Biden announced his American Families Plan that calls for extending the new child tax credit for four more years. The checks of up to $300 per child per month would start to go out in July.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was approved in mid-March, extended the child tax credit for the year 2021. Further, the plan increased the credit amount to $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 for kids below 6. The payment starts to phase out for individuals making $75,000 a year, or $150,000 for couples filing jointly.

Families will be able to get the first half of the credit in the form of monthly checks, while the remaining they would be able to claim as a refund at the time of filing 2021 taxes next year. As per the American Rescue Plan, eligible parents would start to get the child tax credit on a monthly basis from July, and would continue for the 2021 tax year.

The Biden administration, however, plans to change the time frame, and he did the same by introducing the American Families Plan, which calls for extending the credit through 2025.

Making new child tax credit permanent?

Even though Biden wants to extend the credit for four years, some Democrats want these payments to be a permanent affair. These Democrats argue that extending this payment beyond 2025 would allow families to pay essential bills and debt, as well as reduce child poverty in the country.

Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Michael Bennet (D-Colo), Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash) and others want Congress to make the child tax credit permanent.

"For our economy to fully recover from this pandemic, we must finally acknowledge that workers have families, and caregiving responsibilities are real," Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts said. Neal, who is the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, has come up with a bill to extend the credit permanently.

Republicans, however, are against the rising cost of coronavirus stimulus packages. As per an estimate from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, it would cost over $400 billion to extend the child credit for four years. Further, making the credit a permanent affair would cost the taxpayers about $1.6 trillion over ten years, as per an estimate from the Tax Foundation.

Questions are also being raised on how Biden plans to fund the child credit extension, as well as his other plans. Biden, in his latest speech, has called for increasing tax on the wealthiest Americans.