Salinas Advances Key Tax Cuts, Affordable Housing Credits for Working Families

Washington, DC – On Wednesday, January 31, U.S. Representative Andrea Salinas (OR-06) voted to advance key tax cuts, including an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and an enhanced Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), out of the House of Representatives with the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act.

“This legislation is a win for working families not just in Oregon, but across the nation,” said Rep. Salinas. “The expanded Child Tax Credit will lift nearly half a million children out of poverty in the first year, including an estimated 32,000 in Oregon’s Sixth District alone. What’s more, the enhancements to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit will make way for 200,000 affordable rental units across the country. All of these benefits are responsibly paid for by closing off one of the IRS’s “dirty dozen” tax scams, making it an even better deal for Oregonians and for the American people.”

Rep. Salinas continued: “As we enter tax filing season, I call on the Senate to act swiftly and pass this bipartisan legislation to ensure these credits reach Oregonians’ pocketbooks as soon as possible. If the Senate does its job and passes this package quickly, families across Oregon will be able to access the expanded Child Tax Credit for the 2023 tax year. In the meantime, I will continue working across the aisle to find realistic solutions that will lower costs for families.”

Rep. Salinas has been a strong advocate for expanding the LIHTC and other cost-saving provisions that were included in the bipartisan tax deal. Prior to voting to pass the legislation, Rep. Salinas sent a letter to Speaker Johnson outlining these priorities and called for immediate consideration of this tax package.

The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act delivers vital tax relief to working families by:

• Increasing the maximum refundability of the Child Tax Credit (CTC), allowing low-income families to receive more of the credit than they were able to previously.
• Giving eligible families the option to use their earned income from the prior year to calculate their CTC, benefiting taxpayers whose income may have fallen from one year to the next.
• Modifying the computation of the refundability to be on a per-child basis, meaning more low-income families with multiple children will qualify for a higher CTC.
• Adjusting the CTC for inflation starting in 2025, keeping pace with the cost of living.

Other Key Provisions
This package will spur spending on domestic research and development by businesses, by allowing businesses to deduct those expenses immediately. It will lower the cost of housing by enhancing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which will help develop more than 200,000 affordable housing units. It will provide tax relief to taxpayers who have been the victims of natural disasters. And it will alleviate double-taxation on cross-border investment, allowing for a Tax Agreement with Taiwan, strengthening our economic partnership.

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