Low-Income Families Must Wait for Child Tax Rebates

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans readied an expansion of child tax credits for a vote Friday but the 6.5 million low-income families it's intended to benefit would have to wait until next year to see the rebate checks being mailed this summer to middle-income households, The Associated Press reported.

In drafting language to add $82 billion in new tax cuts over the next decade to the Senate bill, the House Republican leaders made no provision for sending out checks this summer to the low-income households.

Their bill also omitted language to let military families include their combat pay from the war in Iraq toward the credit, according to Democrats who analyzed the bill. That combat pay is not taxed, and leaving it out might leave military families without enough taxable income to claim the credit.

"This is one of the most cynical and hypocritical moves I have ever seen," said Charles Rangel of New York, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 06/12/03