Governor Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday that the state will deliver approximately $350 million in supplemental payments to low- and moderate-income families through a tax credit program, where eligible families will receive a direct payment of up to $330 per child.
The Empire State Child Credit is a refundable tax credit for income-qualified New Yorkers with children. In 2023, the governor and the state legislature expanded the Empire State Child Credit to include children under four, benefitting an estimated 600,000 additional children per year, according to a press release.
Earlier this year, the more than 1 million families eligible for the Empire State Child Credit began to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits based on their 2023 tax filings.
Eligible taxpayers do not need to do anything to receive this one-time additional payment. Taxpayers who received an Empire State Child Credit of at least $100 on their 2023 state tax returns will receive a check in the mail. The Tax Department will begin mailing checks in the first week of August and continue for several weeks, the press release said.
“We’re putting money back in the pockets of more than a million New Yorkers because this administration delivers for working families,” Hochul said. “Our work is far from over. From expanding tax credits to increasing access to child care assistance, I’ll never stop fighting to address the cost of living for working parents and help them create a brighter future for their kids.”
In addition, the governor recently launched ny.gov/childcare – a digital portal to help make free or low-cost child care more accessible to eligible families statewide through New York State’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). This initiative covers more than 90% of market-rate child care costs for most eligible families, with most families of four paying no more than $15 per week for child care.
