美国儿童税收抵免机制:立法背景、修订历程和启示

On Child Tax Credit Regime in the United States:Legislation Background,Amendments and Enlightenment

儿童税收抵免机制是美国税法中一项旨在通过减轻育儿家庭的经济负担,来提高家庭生育积极性的税收机制,在全球金融危机和新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情期间还具有为低收入家庭提供资金纾困的功能。本文描述了美国儿童税收抵免机制的立法背景,分析该机制在其后二十多年里的修订历程和修订内容。从该机制的“生育友好型”政策目的、收入调节功能,以及实施效率和税收征管角度,剖析了该机制的要素设计和改进方向,以期为我国制定“生育友好型”税收政策提供启示和借鉴。

The child tax credit regime provided in the U.S.Tax Code aims to enhance the fertility of families through reducing their economic burden for children cares,and this regime also functioned to provide cash subsidy for the low-income families during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.This paper describes the legislative background of the child tax credit regime,analyzes the history and contents of the amendments over the past two decades,and then analyzes the elements design and improvement directions of the mechanism from the perspectives of its“fertility-friendly”policy purpose,income reallocation function,and implementation efficiency and tax collection and administration,in order to provide a reference for China in formulating a“fertility-friendly”tax policy.