The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, sometimes called the tax cuts for working families act, did not become law. The House passed it on January 31, 2024, by a 357 to 70 vote, but the Senate failed to advance it on a procedural motion in August 2024, and the bill died when the 118th Congress ended in January 2025.1Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Roll Call 30 – Bill Number H.R. 7024 Some of what it proposed, particularly on the business side, was later enacted in a different form through the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act signed on July 4, 2025. The expanded refundable Child Tax Credit that was the bill’s centerpiece for low-income families never took effect.
What the Bill Would Have Done
H.R. 7024 was a bipartisan deal negotiated by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith. The Congressional Budget Office scored the package at roughly $79 billion, with most of the cost tied to expanding the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit.2Congressional Budget Office. H.R. 7024, Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 Cost Estimate
On the family side, the bill would have raised the maximum refundable Child Tax Credit to $1,800 for tax year 2023, $1,900 for 2024, and $2,000 for 2025. It also would have changed how the refundable portion is calculated so that families with multiple children receive a larger benefit, and it would have let families use prior-year income when computing the credit.3United States Senate Committee On Finance. Fact Sheet on the Wyden-Smith Tax Relief for American Workers and Families Act
On the business side, the bill would have retroactively restored immediate expensing of domestic research costs, extended 100% bonus depreciation through 2025, and raised the Section 179 deduction ceiling. It also would have increased Low-Income Housing Tax Credit state allocation ceilings by 12.5% for 2023 through 2025.
Why It Failed in the Senate
After the lopsided House vote, the bill needed 60 senators to agree to bring it to the floor. On August 1, 2024, that procedural motion failed 48 to 44, with only three Republican senators voting to proceed. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to “no” so he could bring the bill back later under Senate rules, but it never returned to the floor. When the 118th Congress ended in January 2025, the bill died.
The practical consequence for the 2023 tax year was that families who had been waiting to see whether the retroactive Child Tax Credit increase would raise their refunds never received one. The IRS had signaled it could process any changes without requiring amended returns, but there was nothing to process. The proposed business tax restorations for 2022 through 2025 also expired without being enacted.
What Families Lost When the Bill Died
The most significant family-side change in H.R. 7024 was not the headline dollar figure but the per-child math. Under current law, the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit is computed as 15% of earned income above $2,500, and that single figure is then spread across all qualifying children. The bill would have applied the 15% phase-in rate on a per-child basis, which would have meaningfully increased payments to lower-earning families with two or more children. A family with three kids and $15,000 in earned income would have received a noticeably larger refund under the per-child formula.
The bill also included a lookback provision that would have allowed families to use the prior year’s earned income when calculating their refundable credit, which would have cushioned families dealing with job loss or reduced hours. Neither the per-child formula nor the lookback made it into any later law.
What Passed Instead
Many of the business provisions H.R. 7024 tried to restore temporarily were later enacted, often on more generous terms, through the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act signed on July 4, 2025.4Internal Revenue Service. One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions The child-side provisions were handled very differently.
Research and Development Expensing
H.R. 7024 would have restored immediate deduction of domestic research costs temporarily, through 2025. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act created a new permanent provision, codified as Section 174A, allowing full expensing for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024. Foreign research costs remain subject to 15-year amortization. Small businesses with average annual gross receipts of $31 million or less can elect to apply the change retroactively to tax years beginning after December 31, 2021, which could generate refunds for companies that were forced to capitalize those costs.5Thomson Reuters. The Future of R&D Expensing
Bonus Depreciation
H.R. 7024 would have extended 100% bonus depreciation through the end of 2025. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act made 100% first-year depreciation permanent for eligible property acquired after January 19, 2025.6Internal Revenue Service. Treasury, IRS Issue Guidance on the Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction Amended as Part of the One Big Beautiful Bill
Section 179
H.R. 7024 would have raised the Section 179 expensing limit to $1.29 million with a $3.22 million phase-out. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act went considerably further, setting the limit at $2,500,000 with a $4,000,000 phase-out threshold for property placed in service in tax years beginning after December 31, 2024, and making the increase permanent. For sport utility vehicles, the maximum deduction is $31,300 for tax years beginning in 2025.7Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4562 (2025)
Child Tax Credit
Instead of the refundability expansion in H.R. 7024, the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act raised the overall maximum Child Tax Credit to $2,200 per qualifying child starting in 2025, with the refundable portion remaining at $1,700. The credit will be adjusted for inflation beginning in 2026. The per-child refundability formula and the earned-income lookback from H.R. 7024 were not included.
The Child Tax Credit You Can Actually Claim Now
For the 2025 tax year, the maximum Child Tax Credit is $2,200 per qualifying child. If your federal income tax liability is too low to use the full credit, up to $1,700 per child is refundable through the Additional Child Tax Credit.8Internal Revenue Service. Refundable Tax Credits
To qualify, your child must be under 17 at the end of the tax year and have a valid Social Security number issued for employment. An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number does not qualify a child for the credit.9Internal Revenue Service. Child Tax Credit The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, sibling, or a descendant of any of those, and must live with you for more than half the year.10Internal Revenue Service. Dependents
You receive the full credit if your modified adjusted gross income is $200,000 or less, or $400,000 or less for married couples filing jointly. Above those thresholds, the credit phases out by $50 for every $1,000 of additional income. To claim the refundable portion, you need earned income of at least $2,500.11Internal Revenue Service. Child Tax Credit
The credit is claimed on Form 1040 using Schedule 8812, which handles both the nonrefundable credit and the refundable Additional Child Tax Credit. Check the “Child tax credit” box in the Dependents section for each qualifying child.12Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule 8812 (Form 1040) (2025) The credit will be indexed to inflation starting in 2026, so the maximum will likely tick up slightly in future years.
If you were counting on the retroactive Child Tax Credit increase in H.R. 7024, there is no separate refund coming and no amended return to file for it. The credit amounts on your 2023 and 2024 returns are what current law provides, and the current-law figures above are what apply for 2025.