Biden Wants to Extend the $3,600 Child Tax Credit Through 2025
If President Biden's proposal is enacted, eligible families could receive monthly payments for years.


Families are getting a bigger and better child tax credit for 2021. And, if President Biden gets his way, most of the credit enhancements will continue to be available for several more years while full refundability of the credit will be permanent.
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, which was enacted in March, this year's child tax credit for many families is increased from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per kid ($3,600 for children under age 6), 17-year-olds qualify for the credit, and the credit is fully refundable. The IRS is required to make advance payments of the child credit to qualifying families in 2021, too. Eligibility for the credit and advance payments, and calculation of the amount of the advance payment, will be based on your 2020 tax return (if a 2020 return hasn’t been filed, the IRS will look to your 2019 return). The advance payments will account for half of a family's 2021 child tax credit. The IRS says it will start sending out monthly payments in July. Families who qualify for the full $3,000 or $3,600 credit could see monthly checks of $250 or $300 per child from July through December. Families with higher incomes who qualify for the $2,000 credit will get monthly payments of $167 per child for the same six months. (To see how much you'll get, use Kiplinger's 2021 Child Tax Credit Calculator.)
The IRS is also developing an online portal so you can update your income, marital status, and the number of qualifying children. If your circumstances change in 2021 from your last filed federal tax return, and you believe those changes could affect the amount of your child credit for 2021, you will be able to go to the portal once it's up and running and update it with the correct information. Also, people who want to opt out of the advance payments, and instead take the full child credit on their 2021 return, will be able to do so through the same online portal. The IRS expects to launch the portal by July 1.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Extending the Child Tax Credit Enhancements
Although the child tax credit expansions currently apply for this year only, Democrats want to extend the bigger break and eventually make it permanent. They tout the impact that a higher and fully refundable child tax credit would have on reducing child poverty in the United States, and have sponsored bills in Congress to make the credit enhancements and advance payments permanent. For example, Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the Democratic Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, recently unveiled proposed legislation to permanently extend the 2021 child tax credit expansions as part of a bigger plan to provide more family and medical leave benefits and to make childcare more affordable.
President Biden has now jumped on the child tax credit extension bandwagon, too. His newly released American Families Plan would extend the expanded child tax credit through 2025, though he would make full refundability, and we assume advance payments, permanent. It should come as no surprise that many of the tax changes that were enacted in former President Trump's 2017 tax reform law are set to expire after 2025, including that law's provision that doubled the child credit from $1,000 to $2,000.
It's too soon to tell whether Biden's American Families Plan proposal can even be enacted. There are lots of hurdles to passage. The big tax increases on upper-income individuals included in the plan make it unpalatable for Republicans, and possibly even for some moderate Democrats. It's easier to predict that the 2021 child tax credit expansions are unlikely to go away after this year. After all, this is Washington, D.C., and politicians will find themselves hard pressed politically to take a tax benefit away from millions of lower- and middle-class Americans.
For more information on this year's child tax credit, see Child Tax Credit 2021: Who Gets $3,600? Will I Get Monthly Payments? And Other FAQs.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.

Joy is an experienced CPA and tax attorney with an L.L.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law. After many years working for big law and accounting firms, Joy saw the light and now puts her education, legal experience and in-depth knowledge of federal tax law to use writing for Kiplinger. She writes and edits The Kiplinger Tax Letter and contributes federal tax and retirement stories to kiplinger.com and Kiplinger’s Retirement Report. Her articles have been picked up by the Washington Post and other media outlets. Joy has also appeared as a tax expert in newspapers, on television and on radio discussing federal tax developments.
-
Veterans Could Lose Food Benefits Under Trump’s Tax Law: What to Know
Food Benefits Veterans up to 64 years old must work to keep food stamps under Trump’s new tax legislation.
-
Want to Retire at 67? See if You Can Answer These Five Questions
Retirement is within your reach. But before you leap make sure you are ready by answering these five questions.
-
Stay NJ Could Give You $6,500: The Deadline You Can't Miss
Property Taxes New Jersey has a new property tax relief program for 2025. But the application deadline is fast approaching.
-
Ask the Editor, August 15: Tax Questions on the OBBB, Tax Rates
Ask the Editor In this week's Ask the Editor Q&A, we answer tax questions from readers on the OBBB and changes, if any, to tax rates.
-
How the 2025 Child Tax Credit Rules Impact Single Parents
Tax Credits New changes to family tax credits, like the Child Tax Credit, will impact the eligibility of some households.
-
The Fall Garden Tax? What to Plant and How to Prepare
Tax Tips Fall gardening could increase your taxes this season. Here’s what to know while planting in 2025.
-
How Your 2025 Summer Wedding Could Save You Money on Taxes
Tax Breaks There are some wedding expenses that are tax-deductible, and you don’t want to miss out on savings.
-
Ask the Editor, August 8: Tax Questions on Roth IRA Conversions
Ask the Editor In this week's Ask the Editor Q&A, we answer tax questions from readers on converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.
-
Texas Sales Tax-Free Weekend 2025
Tax Holiday Here's what you needed to know about the Texas sales tax holiday.
-
Retirees Should Watch These Four Key Tax Changes in 2025
Tax Changes This year brings key tax changes that could affect your retirement taxes and income.