Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan made a stop at a local tax preparer on Monday urging Minnesotans to take advantage of the state’s new Child Tax Credit.
Under a bill signed by Walz last year, some Minnesotans can claim a credit of up to $1,750 per child on their taxes.
Walz says thousands of vulnerable families have already been able to opt-in to receive the credit.
"48,000 claimed the child tax credit, 25% of all that were in during the week, for $61 million, and an average credit of $1,253," explained the governor. "That is music to our ears. That is what takes children out of poverty."
Walz says the credit targets help to the state's most vulnerable families.
"During the pandemic, when the federal government moved on the child tax credit, we saw the largest movement of children out of poverty that we've seen in our nation's history, that expired at the federal level," Walz said Monday. "But we, in Minnesota, picked it up and beefed that thing up and we have the most, the best child tax credit in the country. But here's the thing, you have to file your taxes to get it."
The expanded is expected to cut child poverty in the state by one-third according the the Walz Administration. The governor says an estimated 300,000 low-income households are eligible.
The credit phases out if your income is over $29,500 or $35,000 for Married Filing Jointly in order to get money to the lowest incomes, but still provide relief to families that make more. It also gives more to single parent households. The cost is about $900 million in Minnesota’s next two-year budget.