One-Pager: A Tax Code that Works for Women and Families — Not Just Billionaires

Our tax system favors the wealthiest, leaving everyday women and families behind. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Congress can start to fix our broken tax code by:

Putting Money Back in Families’ Pockets by Expanding Tax Credits

Tax credits should support those who need them the most, not just the wealthiest. To do this, Congress can:

• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for Workers Who Do Not Claim Children: Increasing the credit for workers who do not claim children on their taxes and expanding eligibility to all workers over age 19 will help millions of low-wage workers.
• Expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Make It Fully Refundable: Increasing the maximum amount a family can receive per child and making the credit fully refundable will help ensure that all families can reap the full benefits.
• Expand the Child & Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) and Make It Fully Refundable: This will help ensure more low- and moderate-income families can access this credit, which helps cover the cost of out-of-pocket, work-related child and dependent care expenses.
• Make Permanent Expansion of Premium Tax Credits: The current expansion of these credits is helping 19 million families afford health care through state health care exchanges and is set to expire at the end of 2025.

Making the Wealthy Pay their Fair Share 

Our tax code favors the wealthy. Right now, the top 1% and big corporations pay much lower tax rates than they have throughout our history. To make progress towards a fairer tax code, Congress can:

• Equitably Tax Major Corporations and the Wealthiest Households: Raising the corporate tax rate to 28% would ensure that profitable corporations are paying more of their fair share. Raising the income tax rate of the wealthiest 1% of Americans to 39.6% and raising the tax rate that wealthy families pay on their investment gains, along with closing certain loopholes, would mean that those with the most resources are chipping in just like average families. These changes together would raise around $2 trillion over 10 years.
• Tax Wealthy Estates More Fairly: Most of the wealth in America is held by incredibly wealthy white families. To make sure that the wealthiest families are not turning into dynasties, Congress should increase the rate at which estates are taxed based on their size, and close certain loopholes. These changes could raise around $430 billion over 10 years.

Funding the IRS

When the IRS has enough funding and staff, it can better serve families and go after wealthy tax cheats.

If the wealthiest pay their fair share, we can raise more than enough money to invest in child care, care for the elderly and people with disabilities, and more affordable homes—with hundreds of billions of dollars still left over for other long-overdue investments. This fairer tax system would support families, strengthen communities, grow the economy, and ensure that everyone—not just billionaires—can thrive.