The new Child and Dependent Tax Credit will help families by providing a refundable credit each year for each child under 13 and dependent adults over 65 years of age or with disabilities. The new credit simplified existing benefits and removed the existing penalty for large families. The credit will be $310 per dependent in 2023 and $440 per dependent in 2024, and the value of the credit is not adjusted for inflation.
The dashboard below estimates– by legislative district – how many dependents are eligible for the Child and Dependent Tax Credit, based on U.S. Census microdata. The dashboard also allows you to see how much money would go to each district. The dashboard uses the most current legislative district boundaries.
Select the “Your District,” tab and choose the district from the dropdown. The table displays the district’s number of eligible dependent children under 13, the number of eligible adult dependents, and the percent of the district’s population that is eligible for the credit.
The tabs, labeled “MA House” and “MA Senate,” display maps of the House and Senate districts. Hover (hold your cursor over) any legislative district on the map to display data for that district.
Additional information:
The new tax credit consolidates and enhances two existing, fully refundable dependent credits: the Household Dependent Tax Credit (HDTC) and Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC). At present, families must choose between these credits, and the benefit is capped at two dependents, which penalizes larger families. The current maximum DCTC benefit is 25 percent higher than claiming the HDTC, which disadvantages alternative care arrangements like family and home-based care.
Prior to the creation of the CDTC, a family could claim a maximum of two eligible dependents, a restriction that was eliminated under the new credit. Table 1 shows the difference in total credit dollars available for families with three or four dependents under prior law and the new CDTC.
| Maximum Credit Under Current Law and Proposals | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dependents | Prior Credits | CDTC 2023 | CDTC 2024 |
| Three | $480 | $930 | $1,320 |
| Four | $480 | $1,240 | $1,760 |
The dashboard utilizes data from the U.S. Census Bureau to show how many dependents will be eligible for the proposed Child and Family Tax Credit (CFTC) in each legislative district. On average there will be just over 6,000 eligible dependents per House district and 24,000 eligible dependents per Senate district, which have larger populations. Fully 91 percent of eligible dependents are children.
The expanded CDTC will reach families in need of support and help advance racial equity. Communities of color bear a disproportionate share of the burden of economic hardship in the Commonwealth. For example, white residents in Massachusetts have a lower poverty rate than do Black residents. Our analysis of Census data suggests that BIPOC communities particularly benefit from the CDTC due to a greater share of those eligible for the credit compared to their share of the state population. The top districts in terms of population eligible for the credit also tend to have larger BIPOC communities.
