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WASHINGTON
- July 23 -
Advance Child Tax Credit Payments Will Miss
Most Children of Sales Workers, Farming Families, Cooks, Janitors
The postal service this Friday will start delivering about 25 million advance child tax credit checks. It will skip the mailboxes of millions of children in hard-working taxpaying families, unjustly excluded from the newly expanded child tax credit. The Bush Administration’s massive new tax cut enacted this year expands the child tax credit by $400 per child for some families. Yet one in four American children under 17 (more than 18 million) lives in a family denied an advance child tax credit check from the massive tax law that disproportionately benefits the wealthy. Among those who will get no tax relief this summer are (see Table):
more than three quarters (801,000) of the children of sales workers
more than half (903,000) of the children of janitors and maids
more than half (526,000) of the children of cooks and other kitchen workers
more than half (290,000) of the children of farmers and farm workers
two out of five children (376,000) of child care workers and their aides
one in four (711,000) children of nurses and their aides
one in four (483,000) children of secretaries and related office workers
one in five (264,000) children of truck, bus and cab drivers
Critics have argued that Congress should not grant tax relief to those families who are unemployed or who do not pay federal income taxes. However, even hard-working taxpaying families earning up to roughly $26,625 a year will receive nothing, while higher-income families receive a check. These excluded hard-working families pay payroll taxes, state and local sales taxes, property taxes, or excise taxes.
A tax relief provision for low-income, working families earning more than $10,500 was taken out of this year’s tax law at the last minute and would have provided a larger child tax credit to 12 million children. Among these are 260,000 children of active duty armed forces personnel. Most of the families of the 12 million children will receive no relief this summer, while the rest will receive less than the $400 per child credit bestowed on higher-income families.
Helping those excluded low-income children by restoring the provision would cost $3.5 billion over a two year period. By contrast, this year’s $350 billion tax cut will give an average tax break of $8.3 million to each of America’s 400 wealthiest taxpayers according to The New York Times at a cost of $3.3 billion a year – more than enough to cover the cost of the provision to help families who need it most.
White House leadership is needed to ensure immediate congressional action to right the wrong for those families unjustly left behind by the Administration’s massive new tax cut law.
TABLE 1
Dependent Children Under 17
By Selected Detailed Occupations of One or Both Parents
| |
Total |
Receive NO increase in child tax credit check under
May 2003 law |
As % of Total |
Would receive increase under Senate Lincoln-Snowe low-income
tax relief |
As % of Total |
| Occupation of Parents |
|
|
|
|
|
| Sales Workers (Retail and Personal Services) |
1,047,000 |
801,000 |
77 |
299,000 |
29 |
| Farmers and Farm Workers |
530,000 |
290,000 |
55 |
178,000 |
34 |
| Cooks and Other Kitchen Workers |
953,000 |
526,000 |
55 |
377,000 |
40 |
| Bartenders, Waitresses,
and their Assistants |
276,000 |
146,000 |
53 |
123,000 |
45 |
| Janitors and Maids |
1,694,000 |
903,000 |
53 |
540,000 |
32 |
| Child Care Providers and their Assistants
|
975,000 |
376,000 |
39 |
216,000 |
22 |
| Barbers and Beauticians |
511,000 |
169,000 |
33 |
104,000 |
20 |
| Nurses, Nurses Assistants
(incl. Orderlies and Attendants) |
2,938,000 |
711,000 |
24 |
567,000 |
19 |
| Secretaries, Receptionists and Clerks |
2,104,000 |
483,000 |
23 |
446,000 |
21 |
| Truck, Bus and Cab Drivers |
1,375,000 |
264,000 |
19 |
292,000 |
21 |
| Teachers (Grades Prekindergarten-12) and their Aides |
3,245,000 |
358,000 |
11 |
337,000 |
10 |
| In Armed Forces
(Child lives in U.S. off base) |
1,395,000 |
121,000 |
9 |
262,000 |
19 |
Source: Children's Defense Fund 2003 tax simulations for
families in the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2002 Current Population
Survey
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