FACT SHEET: How Many Pennsylvania Families in Every County Will Qualify for the Childcare Tax Credit Under Governor Shapiro’s Expansion

Harrisburg, PA – Last month, Governor Josh Shapiro signed into law an expansion of the Childcare Tax Credit for nearly 210,000 Pennsylvania families. Under previous law, Pennsylvania would match only 30 percent of the federal Childcare Tax Credit. Now, thanks to this new bipartisan legislation, the state credit will match 100 percent of the federal credit, helping Pennsylvania families offset more of the burden of rising childcare costs in the Commonwealth.

The Childcare Tax Credit that is available to Pennsylvanians at the state level is based on the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. Taxpayers must receive the federal credit to also be eligible for the state credit in Pennsylvania. The major expansion signed into law by Governor Shapiro means:

• The maximum credit will be $1,050 (one child) or $2,100 (two or more children).
• The minimum credit will be $600 (one child) or $1,200 (two or more children).

Prior to the expansion signed by Governor Shapiro, the maximum credit Pennsylvania families could receive was up to $315 (one child) or $630 (two or more children). Under the new law, Pennsylvanians could see up to a 233% increase in their tax credit from last year.

Read below to see an estimated county breakdown of the number of Pennsylvanians who may benefit from the expanded tax credit thanks to the expansion signed into law by Governor Shapiro.

*All data is an estimated county by county breakdown based on applications from FY 2022 tax data. The information in this chart is from the Department of Revenue as of 12/29/2023.

**Data has been redacted to prevent disclosure of individual tax return information.

For more information about the Childcare and Dependent Care Tax Credit, visit pa.gov/childcaretaxcredit.

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