Eligible New York families could get a new child tax credit from New York of up to $1,500 every three months if a new proposal is approved. Introduced in December, this new proposal – called the Working Families Tax Credit – continues to gain support from lawmakers across the state.
New Child Tax Credit From New York: How It’s Different?
In December 2022, State Sen. Andrew Gounardes sponsored a bill in the state senate, called the Working Families Tax Credit. This bill calls for giving a child tax credit from New York of up to $1,500 per child four times a year.
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The bill has been gaining support ever since it was introduced, and the latest to support this credit is Councilmember Alexa Avilés. On Thursday, Avilés introduced a resolution that calls for bringing back the child tax credit. Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens) also supports the bill.
Under the bill, eligible families will get a child tax credit from New York every three months. The credit amount would be reduced depending on income level.
Gounardes’ Working Families Tax Credit, if approved, would combine the state’s Empire State Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit into one. This would result in making the credits more efficient, as well as expanding the coverage to more families.
Moreover, the new child tax credit would eliminate the exclusion of children from birth to age 4, as well as includes all families irrespective of their immigration status. The credit also eliminates income phase-in, offering the biggest credit to those with the lowest income.
Further, the child tax credit not only raises the credit amount of up to $1,500 per child but also guarantees that every family gets at least $500 regardless of income.
It is estimated that under the new child tax credit from New York, families with one to three children, on average, will get $1,090 more than they currently do. This new credit system would cost the state about $2 billion.
Working Families Tax Credit: What’s The Need?
Gounardes’ bill is on similar lines as the federal tax credit, which expired in December 2021. The federal tax credit was part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Several studies prove that the federal child tax credit helped in reducing child poverty.
“The expanded federal tax credit was a huge boost for millions of families, but Congress failed to renew it,” Gounardes said in a tweet on Tuesday. “NYS can step in & fill the gap by passing my Working Families Tax Credit – $1500 per child prepaid 4x yearly to give families a needed safety net to buy their necessities.”
In NYC alone, the federal child tax credit helped to reduce the child poverty rate by over 30% in 2021, notes a report from the nonprofit Robin Hood and Columbia University. The credit prevented around 120,000 children from falling into poverty.
