House bill guarantees that $1,000-per-child tax credit will remain in place through 2010.
WASHINGTON – Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives pushed through another round of tax cuts, which would guarantee that the $1000 per-child family tax credit remains in place through 2010.
The bill passed by a 224-201 margin, with nine Democrats supporting the tax cut and nine Republican members voting against the tax cut.
Due to obscure provisions in the 2001 and 2003 tax relief legislation, the per-child tax credit would float between $600 and $1000 between now and 2010. The House bill stabilizes the credit at an even $1000 per child.
"The tax code is complex enough as it is, and the House did a wise thing by stabilizing the child tax credit at $1000," said taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) in Washington. "These tax cuts will be very beneficial to American families when a greater proportion of the money they earn will be put back into their pockets to be spent on their families"
Members against tax relief, including Maine Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, called for provisions to be extended through increasing child tax credit to low-income families that don\’t earn enough to pay income tax. The House Bill extended credits to those families while stabilizing the rates for middle-income taxpayers, as well.
The legislation will be sent to the conference committee and be debated between competing House and Senate versions. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration yesterday indicated a certain urgency on the matter, when they released a statement endorsing quick action by the House to get a version similar to the Senate\’s on the President\’s desk.