News Round-up: September 19, 2016
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues.
- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced his child care plan, which would guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave and create new child care spending rebates through the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The proposal did not give details on who would receive these rebates, and it remains unclear how this policy shift would change the EITC (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle).
- Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual income and poverty data, which showed the official poverty rate dropped 1.2 percentage points in 2015 to 13.5 percent – the most dramatic decrease since 1968. Tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Additional Child Tax Credit played a critical role in lowering the poverty rate, and expanding the EITC could give millions more low-income taxpayers the leg up they need to find financial security (TCWF, Washington Post).
- California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill requiring employers to notify their employees who might be eligible for the EITC (Highland News).
- Advocates in Georgia began gearing up for another push to enact an EITC during the 2017 legislative session (Northwest Georgia News).
- New regulations at the IRS mean that families collecting the EITC in 2017 will not receive their refund checks until after February 15 (CNBC, The Week).
- Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told CNN that he believes married same-sex couples should not be eligible for tax credits like the EITC and Child Tax Credit (CTC), even though they are guaranteed equal treatment under current law (Patheos).