Help Working Families—Not just Business: Vote to Make CTC and EITC Tax Credits Permanent

Recipient: U.S. House of Representatives

View the PDF of this letter here.

Dear Representative,

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States, we urge you, as you consider tax legislation this year, to make permanent the improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which are now in place to assist children and their working parents.   If these tax credit improvements are allowed to expire, millions of working families will be pushed deeper into poverty and the purchasing power they bring to the economy will be weakened, undermining a nascent economic recovery.

The CTC and EITC are credits that help low-income working parents and their children, lifting millions out of poverty and providing a proven work incentive. There is also growing evidence^[1] that these credits lead to improved outcomes for children, including better school performance, higher college enrollment, and increased work effort and earnings in adulthood.

As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has documented, letting the CTC and EITC improvements expire would have devastating consequences:

• More than 16 million people in low-income working families would be pushed into, or deeper into, poverty.  Some 50 million Americans overall with modest incomes — including 31 million children — would lose part or all of their EITC or CTC and see their after-tax income go down.

• The effects would be particularly sharp on families raising children on minimum-wage earnings.  A single mother raising two children on full-time, minimum-wage earnings of $14,500 would lose her entire CTC of $1,725.

To date, much of the debate has focused on so-called tax extenders that would extend tax breaks to big business, rather than on tax policies that are most important for reducing poverty and increasing opportunity among low-income working families with children. The CTC and EITC have proven their worth and ought to be made permanent.

For these reasons, making these pro-work tax credits permanent should be a top priority as you consider tax legislation this year.  Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions, please contact Corrine Yu, Managing Policy Director at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, at (202) 466-3311 or [email protected].

Sincerely,

Wade Henderson
President & CEO

Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President