Also on the horizon for Congressional action is a package of approximately 50 (mostly) corporate tax breaks. The tax breaks, known as “tax extenders” in Washington because they have been repeatedly extended on a temporary basis, expired at the end of 2014. Many Republican members of Congress want to see many of these tax breaks made permanent. Many human needs advocates oppose making them permanent without paying for these tax breaks with other revenue increases, since they cost hundreds of billions of dollars.  It is possible that Congress will extend all of the corporate tax breaks for another year or two, or they may choose to extend some while others are made permanent. It is also possible that some of the tax breaks could be added to the transportation funding bill on Congress’s agenda.
Advocates are emphatic that no corporate tax breaks be extended or made permanent without making permanent improvements to the low-income Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit that are set to expire in 2017. Data released by the Census Bureau in September show that these two low-income tax credits lifted more than 10 million people – and more than 5 million children – out of poverty in 2014. If improvements made in 2009 to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are allowed to expire in 2017, 16 million Americans – including 8 million children – will fall into poverty or become more deeply poor.

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