The impact of converting federal non-refundable tax credits into refundable credits /

A second discrepancy occurs because the definition of low income used to claw back the refundable tax credits is based on the census family, while the definition of low income used to assess the target efficiency of the refundable credits is based on the broader economic family concept.18 To define the net benefits, the census family is used because it is most like the family unit that would be us [...] The differentiation of the BRR by family size, however, increases the proportion of RTC benefits directed to tax filers from low- income families compared to the single BRR for the Option Without Exemption (58.1 percent when the BRR is adjusted by family size compared to 48.9 percent for the single BRR in Table 2) but not for the Option With Exemption (64.0 percent compared to 69.3 percent). [...] Our family income categories include less than 50 percent of the LICO, increments of 25 percent of the LICO up to 150 percent, and more than 150 percent of the LICO to assess the effectiveness of the conversion schemes in delivering benefits across the family income spectrum. [...] Apply a Variable Tax Credit Rate to the Non-Refundable Tax Credits The current treatment of the NRTCs in determining the net federal tax payable is to apply the lowest marginal tax rate of 15 percent to their total value and deduct the resulting amount from the basic federal tax. [...] The table below presents the results of our simulation of the impact of the conversion of NRTCs to RTCs for individual BRRs for the two options.