CPL is working to help connect more California families with the newly refundable federal Child Tax Credit.
Background
In March 2021, Congress passed legislation to provide an additional $3,000 to $3,600 to each child in America through a newly refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC). To receive these credits, eligible families must file taxes. The credit is projected to lift half of Californian children out of poverty: but can only do so if it reaches families in need. Families with incomes around or below the poverty line may not file their taxes because their income level does not require it, and are in danger of not receiving these credits. While the IRS can easily contact families who have filed taxes, it does not have up to date information on children who do not appear on a recent tax return or a way to get in touch with their parents or guardians. State safety-net agencies do interact regularly with low-income non-filing families and have current contact information.
Research Project
Status: ongoing
To determine which children may be at risk of not receiving the CTC — and help the State of California notify their families of the CTC — CPL matched and analyzed a list of Californians who appeared in 2018 and 2019 tax returns with a list of Californians enrolled in safety net programs from Jan 2019 through June 2020. This work is an extension of our federal stimulus gap estimates and our estimation of the take-up of the CalEITC. Our analysis measured differences in receipt and take-up by demographics such as race and ethnicity, geography, language, family size, income and earnings, and immigration status of parents.
A second phase of this research is evaluating results from a low-touch, broad-based outreach campaign whereby CalFresh and CalWORKs recipients received text messages connecting them to GetYourRefund.org, a simplified tax filing tool created by Code for America. A third phase is evaluating the results from targeted, high-touch outreach (via text message and recorded voice messages) that provided a hotline number to recipients, the hotline was equipped to make referrals to SimplifyCT, in-person VITA assistance throughout the state, and other online resources.
Research Team
Jesse Rothstein (Co-Principal Investigator), Elizabeth Linos (Co-Principal Investigator), Jessica Lasky-Fink (Co- Principal Investigator), Vince Dorie, Nikta Akhavan, Sarah Hoover. Note: Aparna Ramesh and Matt Unrath were the Co-Principal Investigators on this project when they worked at CPL and Elsa Augustine and Taylor Mackay were also on the research team during their time at CPL.
Results
The California children who may miss the 2021 federal Child Tax Credit (Sept 2021)
Additional results for the second and third phase of this research are expected in early 2025