As Vincent Ruiz-Ponce and his wife, Danielle, prepare for the birth of their sixth child this spring, he said they expect the unexpected — family expenses they don’t always see coming.

“This past year we had to buy a new van, or this upcoming year there’s going to be dental (work), braces and things like that,” he said. Adding to these expenses are grocery bills growing with their children, ages 2 to 9, and math and reading tutoring for two of their children.

The Ruiz-Ponces and 300,000 other families across the state with children 18 and under can now get help for their expenses by claiming Minnesota’s new child tax credit as they file their 2023 tax return. Depending on income, families can qualify for a credit of up to $1,750 per child with no limit on the number of children claimed.

“What I appreciate about (the child tax credit) is just that parents know best, and families know best how to utilize the funds that they have,” said Vincent Ruiz-Ponce, whose family attends St. Mary in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood. “I just appreciate that this one allows a lot of flexibility.”

In creating the tax credit last year, the Legislature allocated $400 million annually. It provides the highest child tax credit per child compared with the other 14 states that offer them. The credit can be claimed only by filing an income tax return, even when taxes are not owed. State officials in Minnesota hope this effort will help reduce child poverty.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC), which represents the public policy priorities of the state’s bishops, were among the advocates for the child tax credit.

“We know that families are facing, among other pressures, cultural pressures, economic pressures as well, and so especially after the (COVID-19) pandemic when there was rising inflation, rising costs challenges on a number of fronts, family economic security really came into focus as a strategic charity for the bishops,” said Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel for the St. Paul-based conference.

The child tax credit most benefits families in lower income brackets: individual parents making $29,500 or less, or couples who file jointly making $35,000 or less. While the credit amount depends on income threshold qualifications, families who were full- or part-time state residents last year can claim the credit for all their children 18 or younger.

The credit is fully refundable, meaning a family can receive the full credit amount even if they don’t owe taxes. But to receive the credit they must file a tax return, said Paul Marquart, Minnesota revenue commissioner. Marquart, with Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, has been promoting the credit around the state. In the first two weeks of filing, 89,000 children and their families are already benefiting from the credit, said Marquart, whose department implements the credit.

The child tax credit is expected to benefit about 515,000 children — 40 percent of the children aged 18 and younger in the state, Marquart said, adding that the credit will be available each year, as the Legislature doesn’t have to reauthorize it.

A study by Columbia University on the 2021 expanded federal child tax credit showed the potential to cut child poverty by a third, Marquart said, emphasizing the importance of reducing poverty that children experience and reducing income inequities statewide.

“You get higher educational attainment, a stronger workforce, better economy, better health care outcomes, better social justice outcomes,” Marquart said. “Child poverty costs our state and nation a lot of dollars, lost work and productivity, increased health care costs and so forth. Not only are you transforming families lives but you’re really making a transformational change for the entire state overall and into the future.”

The MCC first proposed a child tax credit in an opinions article at the start of the 2022 budget year, as the state was considering a $7.7 billion budget surplus, Adkins said. It was one way to unite Republicans who controlled the Senate and Democrats who controlled the House over family economic security. That surplus would balloon to $17.6 billion by the time Democrats took full control of the Legislature in 2023.

Republicans supported the tax credit in principle last year, but Democrats controlled the legislative and executive branches and advanced the legislation, he said.

The state’s surplus and the fact that the 2021 federal child tax credit had expired provided impetus for passing Minnesota’s child tax credit, Adkins said. The U.S. Congress is currently considering a bipartisan tax bill to overhaul the federal child tax credit.

To promote Minnesota’s child tax credit, the MCC brought together a coalition of the Minnesota Budget Project, an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits; Minnesota Legal Aid, which provides legal access to the most vulnerable; and Children’s Defense Fund, which advocates for child-related policies.

“It was a way in which the Catholic conference, by rooting our advocacy in solid principles of Catholic social teaching, (could) transcend the partisan divides in a way that promotes the common good,” Adkins said.

MCC’s multi-year legislative priority of promoting economic security, called the Families First Project, included about 15 policy proposals — one of which was the child tax credit. The Families First Project “roots all budget and tax negotiations in the principle that the family is the number one unit of society that needs to be supported because they’re doing that important work of raising the next generation,” Adkins said.

For this tax season, the conference has sent information about the child tax credit to parishes and Catholic schools in the state. The Families First Project website, at familiesfirstproject.com, offers information on the child tax credit and a working family credit that families can also claim. The MCC also has a child tax credit promotional toolkit with posters, social media graphics, videos and handouts in English and Spanish, along with other literature. Last month, the MCC hosted a webinar to show parish leaders how to help parishioners understand and claim the tax credit.

“We’re getting the word out that people need to take advantage of it,” Adkins said.

After attending the webinar, Father Tony VanderLoop, pastor of Guardian Angels in Chaska, placed 50 copies of a child tax credit information sheet at the back of his church and noted that they went fast.

“It was important to note that many people qualify in terms of the income guidelines so I knew that many people would be interested,” he said. “I used it as a plug to join the MCC’s CAN (Catholic Advocacy Network) as well.” Through emailed biweekly newsletters and occasional action alerts, the CAN gives members information on issues and tools to take action.

Heidi Flanagan, who has seven children ages 5 to 18, said she learned about the proposed child tax credit last year from an MCC email and from a Twin Cities Catholic homeschool email that invited her and other parents to support it. A member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, Flanagan said she testified at a Minnesota House hearing last February on how the tax credit could relieve “some of the pinch of just the cost of living” for families.

“As much as we work really hard and we do our best to save and put money aside, sometimes life just throws you a curveball,” Flanagan said, citing surgeries one of her sons has needed that aren’t covered by insurance.

That all children in a family can qualify for the child tax credit could encourage younger couples to have larger families, said Vincent Ruiz-Ponce, who also testified at the House hearing last February.

There is a better chance of extending the tax credit further into the middle class if it has bipartisan support, Adkins said.

“There are lots of … barriers to family formation, but we know economics plays a role, so we have to speak to the economic concerns of family,” Adkins said. “Certainly, we want to help all families, but we definitely hope our Catholic families take advantage of (the child tax credit), especially since there’s no cap on the number of children who are eligible for the credit. That’s really important now.”

How to claim the Minnesota child tax credit

File a tax return

• You must file an individual earned income tax return to claim the child tax credit, even if you’re not required to file a return.
• You can file using your social security number (SSN) or an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), a tax filing number for eligible individuals without an SSN.

Claim your tax credit

• Persons with children 18 years old or younger.
• Persons who have lived in Minnesota for all or part of the previous tax year (certain exceptions exist for military members).
• Joint filers making less than $35,000 are eligible for the full amount.
• All other filers making less than $29,500 are eligible for the full credit.
• All other families exceeding the above income thresholds may still qualify but will see a reduced amount.
• The child tax credit will be applied first to any taxes you owe and then any surplus will be given to you as a tax refund, based on your filing status (single or married filing jointly), your income, and your number of dependents.

Information from Minnesota Catholic Conference’s Families First Project and the Star Tribune.