(FiveNation.com)- Millions of families across America are likely not going to get an advancement payment in January as part of the enhanced child care tax credit.
That’s because the Senate isn’t likely to take up President Joe Biden’s massive social spending package until sometime in the near year.
Since the White House passed the last stimulus package in the spring of 2021, families with children have been eligible to receive an advance on their child care tax credit.
Starting in July, families received $300 per month for each child under the age of 5 and $250 per month for each child between 6 and 17. Those payments were made on the 15th of each month, from July through December.
That represented half of the enhanced child care tax credit that was passed as part of the stimulus package, which totaled $3,600 for the younger children and $3,000 for the older children. The other half of the credit will go on families’ end-of-year tax filings.
That program was only set to last through the end of 2021, though, so unless Democrats passed an extension on it — or another separate bill addressing it — families would stop receiving payments after December.
Democrats had attempted to include a one-year extension on the enhanced child care tax credit, which included the option for monthly installment payments, as part of the Build Back Better Act. All along, liberals promised that families wouldn’t experience a lapse in those monthly payments, and that they could expect to receive them again on January 15.
But, with moderate Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia saying he won’t support the bill, it has stalled in the upper chamber. Democrats are now hoping to reconvene on the BBB bill in 2022, as they need to negotiate on a package that Manchin can stomach.
In the meantime, the IRS has said that if Congress doesn’t pass the bill by the end of the year, the monthly advanced payments would likely not go out in time for January.
Just last week, Jen Psaki, the press secretary for the White House, was asked whether the Biden administration would consider sending two payments in February should BBB not get passed in time. She responded by saying the White House has already spoken with the Treasury Department about whether that could work.
Democrats were hoping to extend the enhanced child care tax credit, and the advanced monthly payments, as part of the BBB. The bill had proposed extending the plan through 2022.
The problem, though, is that Manchin said he couldn’t support that — as well as some other parts of the bill.
Specifically, on the enhanced child care tax credit, Manchin said he wanted to put in an income limit that would restrict which families would receive it. He also believed that, while the bill only called for the credit to be extended for another year, that hardly ever happens in Washington.
Once a “temporary” bill gets passed, Manchin said it’s strange how often it becomes a permanent fixture in law.
