Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, applauded the inclusion of provisions in the year-end tax extenders bill that make expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) permanent and provide for improved program integrity for both incentives.
"The EITC and CTC are two of the most effective tools we have to encourage work and fight poverty," said Portman. "These pro-work, pro-family incentives increase work's rewards, and the Congressional Budget Office has said that the EITC encourages more households to enter the workforce. I was also pleased to see that key provisions to prevent improper payments within these programs was added to the legislation. With improper payment rates of close to 25% for both credits, it was essential to preserve the integrity of these programs so that they are available to those who truly need them. By making these anti-poverty expansions permanent, low-income workers will have more certainty that they will be able to afford that next rent check or bag of groceries."
In 2012, 982,000 Ohio households received the EITC and 649,000 households received the low-income part of the CTC. Making the expansions permanent will ensure that 778,000 children in 407,000 Ohio families will not lose some or all of their working-family tax credits.