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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today released the following analysis showing an enhanced child tax credit remains the best way to provide meaningful tax relief for working American families.

The Tax Reform Framework released by the Trump Administration and Senate and House leadership last week sets up tax reform so that the amount of tax relief working families receive will be largely dependent upon how much the Child Tax Credit is increased. The Framework proposes doubling the standard deduction and eliminating the personal exemption in order to make the tax code simpler. This needed change would make filing easier for millions of Americans, but it necessitates increasing the Child Tax Credit significantly in order to ensure meaningful tax relief for working families.

The first chart displays the tax change relative to current law that families of various sizes and income levels would see without an increased Child Tax Credit, compared to a Child Tax Credit worth $2,000 that is also refundable against payroll taxes, as proposed by Rubio and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and supported by Special Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump. It shows Rubio’s proposal would cut taxes for all working and middle-class American families. It also shows that not increasing the Child Tax Credit risks raising taxes on some of these families under the proposed Framework. 

The second chart compares the tax relief that families of various income levels with two children, or about the average family size, would receive under a tax reform bill that increases the Child Tax Credit by only $500 on a non-refundable basis relative to the Rubio’s proposal. It shows that making the Child Tax Credit refundable against payroll tax liability is essential to meaningfully cutting taxes for America’s working class families, as the majority of American workers pay more in payroll taxes than they do income taxes.