Child Tax Credit

PART OF THE Bush administration's tax cuts last year included an increase in the Child Tax Credit from $600 to $1,000 - and millions of households got advance refund checks last summer. The CTC increase disproportionately benefited middle- and upper-income households, but it does provide some extra dollars for lower-income households as well. Added to the Earned Income Tax Credit - which averages $1,709 here - the CTC can make a difference in the lives of lower-income Philadelphians, as well as the community where they will spend that money.

LEAVE NO Child Behind, huh? Unfortunately, lots of people were fooled in 2000 when the Republican Party appropriated that slogan from the Children's Defense Fund as part of its "compassionate conservative" pose. In a myriad of ways, that public-relations device is now being exposed for the lie it always was. But many people hadn't noticed until a couple days after President Bush signed his irresponsible $350 billion tax cut. The fine print reveals that the families of 12 million children won't get the child tax-credit increase touted as a centerpiece of the new law. An estimated 36,895 children in Philadelphia were left out. That's how many kids live in city households that earn $10,000 to $26,000 a year.

The House of Representatives yesterday overwhelmingly approved a boost in the child tax credit as part of a family-friendly tax bill that would cost $400 billion over 10 years. The legislation, which passed, 282-144, would increase the child tax credit from $500 to $600 on income earned this year. That means taxpayers with children would see the extra cash a year from now, when they file forms for 2001. That would amount to nearly $10 billion in immediate tax relief for families with children - a more generous plan than even President Bush proposed because it provides the tax breaks faster.

President Bush visited a federal check-printing plant in the Far Northeast yesterday to celebrate the $400-per-child tax-rebate checks that are being mailed to millions of American families starting today. "When people have more of their own money, they will demand a good or service . . . and it's much more likely someone will be able to find a job," Bush told about 200 workers at the Philadelphia Regional Financial Center, run by the Treasury Department. "When people get checks, it helps them with their lives," Bush said.

Another 8 million or so child tax credit checks will arrive in American mailboxes from the IRS in the coming weeks, as the tax agency distributes money from President Bush's tax break for families with children younger than 17. But, for those who haven't got their check yet, the IRS is suggesting they check its Web site, www.irs.gov. On that site is a link to track your check. Most of the checks were mailed by Aug. 8, but taxpayers eligible for the credit who filed their return after April 15 or who have yet to file their 2002 tax returns because of an extension will have their advance child tax credit sent to them after their extension is processed.

With child-tax-credit checks to be sent within days to millions of middle- and upper-income taxpayers, Senate Republicans urged GOP leaders in the House yesterday to compromise this week on an expanded child tax credit that would benefit low-income families as well. House leaders expressed little hope of acting on the $50 billion proposal before they recess this weekend for a month. At stake are checks of up to $400 per child for about 6.5 million families with incomes from $10,500 to $26,625, not enough to pay income taxes.

The Senate yesterday approved a scaled-down $350 billion tax cut package that makes President Bush's proposal to eliminate dividend taxes temporary. The Senate approved the bill in a 51-49 vote. The bill eliminates taxes on all dividends in two steps. In 2003, 50 percent of dividend earnings would be tax free, and then 100 percent in 2004 through 2006. The cut would expire in 2007. The Senate's measure also would increase the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000, gradually eliminate the marriage penalty and allow small businesses to write off $100,000 in new equipment purchases.

House Republicans yesterday pushed through an $82 billion tax cut that includes help for low-income families and that sets up a confrontation with the Senate just weeks after Congress cut taxes by $350 billion. The frenzy of tax cuts comes at a time when the Treasury is already short of cash. The federal deficit this year alone will exceed $400 billion, a record, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and any new tax cut would increase the Treasury's shortfall.

The pay gap between men and women, everyone assumes, will get smaller. But the experts are beginning to warn otherwise. The U.S. Department of Education projects that by 2008, women will outnumber men in college, 9.2 million to 6.9 million. That should favor women, right? Wrong. The economy increasingly is rewarding people with high-tech skills, not broad-based knowledge. In a technology-oriented economy, the people earning hefty salaries are not the English majors with years of formal education but rather the Web designers, computer programmers and auto-repair technicians with the know-how to control advanced equipment.

Republican congressional nominee Jon Runyan called for cuts in taxes and spending Tuesday, saying: "We have to put money back in the people's hands. " At an afternoon news conference, however, he could offer no details of the costs or consequences of his ideas. "I haven't run the whole gamut of the numbers," he said. "They're just commonsense ideas that I think will really affect people. " For individuals, Runyan would cut federal income taxes 15 percent, eliminate taxes on Social Security and unemployment checks, increase the child tax credit, cut capital gains and dividend taxes in half, ease restrictions on personal retirement plans, and repeal the inheritance tax and alternative minimum taxes.

Give your tax return your full attention. It might be one of your last chances to partake in about $450 billion in tax breaks set to disappear at the end of this year. With the federal government scrounging for money and desperate to relieve a mounting deficit, lawmakers are circling some favorite tax breaks like vultures. During the last couple of years, they have tried to spur an anemic economy by putting a little more of your income back into your pocket instead of routing it to taxes.

Republican congressional nominee Jon Runyan called for cuts in taxes and spending Tuesday, saying: "We have to put money back in the people's hands. " At an afternoon news conference, however, he could offer no details of the costs or consequences of his ideas. "I haven't run the whole gamut of the numbers," he said. "They're just commonsense ideas that I think will really affect people. " For individuals, Runyan would cut federal income taxes 15 percent, eliminate taxes on Social Security and unemployment checks, increase the child tax credit, cut capital gains and dividend taxes in half, ease restrictions on personal retirement plans, and repeal the inheritance tax and alternative minimum taxes.

RE RALPH REILAND'S op-ed "A Nation of Tax-Takers," April 21: It's technically true that 47 percent of U.S. households paid no net income tax for 2009, but the majority are retired seniors. The rest pay no net tax due to a combination of an increase in deductions over the last eight years (like the child tax credit), along with the mortgage-interest deduction. These taxpayers do owe federal income tax, but they are also owed other money that runs through the tax code, so their tax liability is wiped out by these other deductions and payments.

Joanne Carter is executive director of RESULTS, a grassroots antipoverty organization based in Washington Recent reports from the Census Bureau on poverty might sound optimistic in the short-term. From 2006 to 2007, poverty rose so slightly (from 12.3 percent to 12.5 percent) that the bureau regards the poverty rate as not being statistically different from one year to the next. But look closer, and the reality for low-income families is anything but good. Philadelphia remains among the 10 areas in the country with the highest poverty rates.

Generally in agreement on the major issues facing voters in the sprawling Third Congressional District, the leading Republican candidates have turned the race into a contest of geography, personality and money. Chris Myers, the mayor of Medford and a Lockheed Martin executive from Burlington County, and Jack Kelly, an Ocean County freeholder, share similarly conservative positions on such issues as Iraq, illegal immigration and abortion. They make similar free-market arguments about the economy and health-care insurance and environmental protection.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, with a membership topping 350,000 members, offers these tips from its members: If you cannot deduct a contribution to a traditional IRA, always make a Roth IRA contribution instead. Earnings on Roth IRA accounts can be withdrawn tax free, whereas earnings on traditional IRA accounts will be taxable when withdrawn. Make your IRA contributions by April 15. You can extend your income tax return. Contributions to an IRA, which may result in a 2007 income tax reduction, cannot be extended.

Today most Americans will share family stories, gather round the dining-room table and pray to a generous God, and volunteer to help those in need. Thanksgiving is the time when we are what has made us the greatest country in the world - a family-centered, moral people who take personal responsibility for caring for our neighbors in need. Along with churches and families, government has played a role in, at first, nurturing - and, more recently, weakening - this social compact.

Congressional Democrats are in control of crafting a federal budget for the first time in more than a decade, and the results are mostly encouraging. The most significant step has been Democrats' adherence to balanced-budget rules, a needed concept that was abandoned during the years of Republican control. The so-called "pay-go" rules require Congress to behave as any sensible household does: Income (or revenue) must match up with expenses. If Congress cuts taxes, it must cut spending by the same amount or increase another tax. Without such spending discipline, annual budget deficits have approached $400 billion.

SOMETIMES IT'S not all about speed and size. Those characteristics may be important in athletic competition. But in tax preparation, speed, as in the promise of rapid refund loans, and size, as in the appeal of big-name professional tax-preparation services, don't always offer a sporting chance to low-income families. That's why we continue to encourage families making less than $37,300 to get their tax returns prepared at sites run by the Campaign for Working Families. The campaign's 17 sites are manned by volunteer tax-preparers, certified by the Internal Revenue Service.