Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “the Republican tax bill would deny tax credits for another 4 million lower middle-income children. Forty percent--two…”

“the Republican tax bill would deny tax credits for another 4 million lower middle-income children. Forty percent--two out of every five children--would be ineligible for the credit because their family's incomes are not high enough. The total number of children denied this credit because their families do not make enough money would be 28 million. The Republican's highly touted $500 tax credit that is nonrefundable allegedly gives tax relief to families. While corporations will reap a $22 billion windfall in this bill, 28 million children would get nothing. The Republican tax bill denies tax credits to working families. For example, a family of four with two children with no child care expenses would not receive any credit unless its income exceeded $24,385. Moreover, if the family had child care expenses, it could earn as much as $27,180 and fail to qualify for the credit. Also, families that have more than two children, or have high mortgage or health care costs and itemize their deductions, could make close to $30,000 and still not qualify for the credit. The Democratic tax bill has real child care tax credits. The Democratic bill does not compute a family's child care tax credit after the earned income tax credit [EITC] is figured. This is a significant difference--millions of lower- to middle-income families owe income tax before EITC is calculated, but have little or no income tax obligation remaining after EITC is calculated.”