The Build Back Better Act, a vast $1.75 trillion social spending bill now making its way through the House of Representatives, includes a provision that would eliminate the Child Tax Credit’s Social Security number requirement.
The measure, which appears on page 1,647 of the bill’s 2,135 pages, would modify the federal tax code by repealing the requirement that a kid have a valid Social Security number in order to qualify for any and all tax benefits.
“No credit shall be allowed under this section to a taxpayer with respect to any qualifying child unless the taxpayer includes the social security number of such child on the return of tax for the taxable year,” the current law reads. Removing this requirement would open the eligibility for the credit to parents of children without social security numbers, including, potentially, illegal immigrant children.
According to Steven Camarota, a researcher for the Center for Immigration Studies, the provision could cost American taxpayers $2.3 billion in payouts to parents of children who immigrated illegally to the United States and another $8.2 billion to illegal immigrant parents who had children in the United States.
“Illegal immigrants are able to receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children,” Camarota told Fox News. “But the permanent elimination of the SSN requirement means that even illegal immigrants whose children are also illegally in the country can receive cash payments, including the roughly 600,000 unaccompanied minors and persons in family units stopped at the border in FY2021 and released.”
Along with the demand for a social security number, the law eliminates the employment requirement for next year, which simplifies payments to illegal immigrants, Camarota added. “Previously, some illegal immigrants who worked off the books had difficulty showing job income, but that will no longer be an issue,” he added.
Under the American Rescue Plan, the Biden administration increased the minimum child tax credit payments from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under the age of six and from $3,000 to $3,000 for children aged six to seventeen. According to Fox News, families are eligible for the entire compensation if they earn up to $150,000 per couple or $112,500 per single-parent home. These payments would be extended through 2022 under the new clause.
