Child care is fundamental to the economic security of women and families, but it is out of reach for too many. The federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit helps offset child care costs, but only provides limited benefits to low- and moderate-income families. This credit should be improved to help the families who need it most by:
- Making the CDCTC refundable to provide more benefit to low- and moderate-income families;
- Expanding the credit to provide more help to lower-income families; and
- Indexing the credit to inflation to reflect the rising cost of child care over time.