A retired gentleman raising his 13-year-old grandson in Manchester. A homeless man with a 9-year-old daughter in Concord. A mother of two whose husband works as a parts manager for an auto dealer in Nashua. These households were among the estimated 130,000 in New Hampshire to benefit from the expanded child tax credit, a feature of the American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress in March 2021.

That law made the existing tax credit of $2,000 more generous by increasing the amount per child and broadening the eligibility. The legislation also made the credit refundable, meaning it was not just a credit against taxes owed, but would be paid to families with little or no income and therefore little or no tax liability.