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Good news for some: Child tax credit gets a boost, but millions left behind in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill
What's Changing in the Child Tax Credit?
Who Gets Left Out?
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US president Donald Trump's new tax and spending package, which is referred to as the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill', includes a modest increase to the child tax credit, but there is a catch. While the change could bring a small benefit to middle- and upper-income families, many of the lowest-income families, including millions of children, will be left out entirely, as per a Yahoo Finance bill increases the maximum child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200 per child; otherwise, the maximum credit would have gone back to $1,000, as per the report.A senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Joe Hughes pointed out that, 'If you're already receiving the full credit amount, then you will benefit from this,' adding, 'If you're not, then you probably won't benefit,' as quoted by Yahoo READ: 10 key takeaways from Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill summarised simply To qualify for the refundable part of the credit, which is known as the " additional child tax credit ", families need to earn $2,500 or more a year, as reported by Yahoo Finance. That new cutoff excludes some of the country's most impoverished families, with low-income households that earn just enough to receive part of the benefit but not enough to receive the full payment, according to the Tax Policy Center estimated that about 17 million children will be denied the full benefit due to these income limits, as reported by Yahoo example, families with incomes between $10,000 and $20,000 , including full-time employees earning the federal minimum wage, had an average benefit of only $800 in 2022, and families earning between $200,000 and $500,000, on the other hand, had an average of $2,810, the Congressional Research Service found, reported Yahoo READ: After Trump's deportation threat, Musk gets love from China, backs Tesla CEO's bold move to start his own party Director of Economic Security Project Action, Adam Ruben pointed out that, 'basically what it's doing is giving wealthier families a small boost,' adding, 'But for lower-income and working-class families, they get nothing,' as quoted in the the new legislation, even those households where both parents lack a Social Security number, which include undocumented immigrants, even those whose children have a Social Security number and are US citizens, will also be shut out from the benefit, according to the Yahoo Finance report.A professor at the Boston University School of Social Work, Dolores Acevedo-Garcia said that, 'We are excluding some of the most vulnerable kids that have very, very high poverty rates," as quoted in the report. She also pointed out that approximately 1.8 million children live in households where both parents are undocumented, as reported by Yahoo been raised from $2,000 to $2,200 per child for families who qualify, as per the Yahoo Finance only families earning enough to qualify for the full benefit will get the full amount, as per the Yahoo Finance report.
