Monthly child tax credit payments have stopped. Will they be back?

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The monthly child tax credit payments millions of American parents may have gotten used to over the past six months won’t be landing in wallets this week. But since families can start filing their 2021 income tax returns, collecting the other half of the credit as a lump sum, the realization that the expanded child tax credit is dead may be delayed.

At least for now.

As of this month, the tax credit has returned to its pre-2021 level: $2,000 per child, with a requirement parents or guardians earn a certain amount of income to claim it during tax-filing season.

As part of Congress’ effort to help American family finances during the COVID-19 pandemic, the child tax credit was temporarily made available even to families that don’t normally earn enough to qualify, with no work requirement. They just had to file a tax return. The amount was also increased to $3,600 a year for children under 6 and $3,000 for those 6 to 17. Unless they opted to receive a lump sum, families received monthly payments between July and December.

The Build Back Better plan proposed by the Biden administration would extend the expanded version of the child tax credit through at least 2022, with proponents hoping its popularity would make it permanent. But that bill is stalled, with Democrats unable to use their slim single-party majority; Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, objects to both the cost and the lack of a work requirement. It’s a sentiment echoed by some across the aisle, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who pushed for the larger credit, but who doesn’t believe families should receive the credit if they don’t make enough earned income.

While critics and champions of the expanded child tax credit debate its merits, they agree it’s hard to predict its future, both in terms of the form that credit might take and the impact on families.