By Equal Voice Action | October 8, 2019
Investing in Families
Equal Voice Action (EVA) supports policies and programs that invest in poor and low-income families and communities.
EVA has joined allied organizations across the country in calling on Congress to support and advance the Working Families Tax Relief Act.
This proposed bill would help millions of struggling working families and low-income children by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a tax refund for lower-income families and individuals, particularly those raising children. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) provides families with a tax credit or refund for each child under age 17.
Expanding these two highly effective programs would help more than 100 million people, including millions of children in poor and low-income households.
How the Working Families Tax Relief Act Would Help
The Working Families Tax Relief Act would:
- Expand the EITC for workers not raising children to extend much-needed tax relief to around 5 million low-wage workers
- Increase the EITC for families with children to give more working families more room in their budgets to make ends meet
- Make the CTC fully refundable so that poor and near-poor children can receive the full credit, just as middle-income and many wealthy families do
- Boost the CTC for young children to create a fully refundable Young Child Tax Credit for children under age 6
Together, these changes would raise the after-tax incomes of an estimated 46 million households, including 9 million Latino families, 8 million Black families, and 2 million Asian American families.
The vital extra income these families would receive would go a long way in helping them meet their needs and build a brighter future.
Working Families Need Relief
The EITC and CTC are two of our country’s most effective programs for reducing child poverty, with demonstrated longterm, positive outcomes for children’s health, education, and future livelihoods.
Further strengthening these programs is a common-sense investment in children and families that would lift 29 million people above or closer to the poverty line, making our communities and country stronger.
While the wealthiest families continue to benefit from tax policies that by and large favor the rich, poor and low-income households remain largely unheard, overlooked, and underinvested in by decision makers.
We call on policymakers to support and advance the Working Families Tax Relief Act as an investment in the millions of hard-working families that do much of the work that drives our economy.
Read the letters to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate co-signed by Equal Voice Action as part of a coalition of more than 100 national organizations calling on Congress to support the Working Families Tax Relief Act.