Save Pro-Work Pro-Family Tax Credits for Utah Families
Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit provisions will expire unless Congress acts
Salt Lake City – Approximately 115,000 Utah families with 258,000 children are at risk of losing all or part of their federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credits (CTC) unless Congress makes three important provisions permanent that are set to expire.
“These credits are vital for low-income working families in our community to gain financial stability,” said Bill Crim, President and CEO of United Way of Salt Lake. “We urge our Utah congressional delegation to prioritize these provisions this year.”
Every year, more than 20 million working families, including more than 115,000 in Utah, claim the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit when they file their taxes. These tax credits are the No. 1 federal initiative that lifts children and families out of poverty. In 2013, the EITC and CTC helped lift 9.4 million people out of poverty, including 100,000 in Utah.
"The EITC and CTC helps millions of families in small, but always significant ways,” said Emily Jordison, a tax credit recipient from Salt Lake County. “I am so grateful for the supplement it provides to my income and the difference it has made in my kids' lives.”
Utah’s members of Congress are in an especially important position to decide the fate of these expiring tax credit provisions. Utah’s delegation serves in leadership positions on key committees that will decide whether the expiring provisions of these tax credits are made permanent later this year. Most important, Sen. Orrin Hatch chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees all tax-related legislation.
"Without the EITC and CTC, more than 50,000 more Utah children would have fallen below the poverty line last year," said Lincoln Nehring, President and CEO, Voices for Utah Children.
Today, the Utah Family Tax Credits Coalition launched a campaign encouraging Utah’s congressional delegation to save the three expiring provisions of the popular Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. Visit utahfamilytaxcredits.org to learn more, sign on as a supporter, read stories of families impacted, and send emails directly to House and Senate members.
