Eligible families in Ohio could get up to $1,000 in tax credit going forward if a new proposal is approved. The new legislation called the Thriving Families Tax Credit, would provide up to $1,000 in child tax credit from Ohio to eligible families with children. If approved, the legislation would benefit more than 1.4 million children.
Thriving Families Tax Credit: what is it?
Legislation (House Bill 290) to offer a child tax credit is currently in the Ohio House of Representatives. The Thriving Families Tax Credit aims to benefit families that were left out of recent income-tax cuts in the state budget. Also, it would help in the fight against racial inequality.
“Legislators left out those workers when they slashed income taxes for higher-income households in the recent budget. HB 290 would help the Ohioans they ignored,” Policy Matters Tax Policy Researcher Bailey Williams said.
The legislation, if approved, would offer an annual refundable credit of $1,000 per child to families with children younger than six years old, and $500 per child to families with children ages six to 17.
Families must earn less than $65,000 annually to qualify for the full child tax credit from Ohio. The credit would phase out for families with income between $65,000 and $85,000 per year.
According to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, families eligible for the Thriving Families Tax Credit would see their tax bills drop by $1,006 on average.
Child tax credit from Ohio: what’s the need?
A child tax credit from Ohio is much needed, especially now that the extended federal child tax credit expired a couple of years ago. Ohio was ranked 37th in childhood poverty last year. About 18% of children (approximately 446,000) in the state live below the federal poverty line.
A major reason for the high child poverty rate in the state is that the salary in many jobs isn’t enough to support a family. Although some fast-food workers, cashiers and retail salespeople received better pay last year due to the tightening labor market and unionization efforts, their median wages are still low because of decades of low wages in these jobs.
About 372,000 people worked in these jobs last year, according to Policy Matters Ohio. Moreover, many of these workers were left out when the lawmakers reduced income taxes for higher-income households in House Bill 33, which is Ohio’s biennial budget bill.
The income tax cuts in House Bill 33 largely concentrated on households with high incomes. Earners in the top 20% received over 85% of the more than $750 million in annual tax cuts. On the other hand, residents with annual incomes below $75,000, i.e., about 60% of households, received just 0.8% of those cuts.
In fact, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a family of three children with a median income of about $62,000 witnessed a slight tax increase.
