The Family Affordability Tax Credit provides money to eligible families with children under 17. The amount varies by income and a child’s age. For 2024, families earning up to $95,000 jointly or $85,000 as single filers could qualify. Because the credit is refundable, families can receive it even if they owe little or no state income tax.

The suspension followed Colorado’s December 2025 revenue forecast, which fell below the threshold required to keep the credit active.

For Erik Dryden, of Cañon City, the credit helped his family do more than cover routine expenses. He and his wife, Lauren, used some of the money to take their 10-year-old son and his older brothers to Meow Wolf in Denver.

Dryden said the extra funds also help families manage rising costs and sudden bills, from car repairs to a broken water heater. Losing the credit, he said, could make those emergencies harder to handle.

A September report from the Colorado Children’s Campaign estimates that about 107,200 Colorado children — roughly 9% of the state’s children — lived in poverty in 2024, even after accounting for tax credits, food assistance and other public programs. The report uses a Colorado-specific poverty measure developed by Columbia University researchers.

Unlike the federal poverty guideline, which put the threshold for a family of four at $31,200 in 2024, the Colorado measure accounts for public benefits and unavoidable expenses. The report estimates the Family Affordability Tax Credit had the largest poverty-reducing effect among the programs it examined. Federal housing assistance lifted an estimated 15,800 children out of poverty, and SNAP food benefits helped another 11,600. Those totals overlap because families can receive multiple forms of assistance.

Maya Gould, the campaign’s vice president of research, said the number of children experiencing poverty may surprise people in a relatively wealthy state. She expects the loss of the credit could increase child poverty, while cautioning that it does not mean all 22,500 children the credit helped in 2024 will necessarily fall back into poverty. Some families also receive other assistance, making the effects difficult to predict.

The report also highlights the pressure of basic costs. United For ALICE estimates a Colorado household with two adults, an infant and a preschooler needed $94,536 in 2024 for housing, child care, food, transportation and health care — more than three times the federal poverty guideline for a family of four. The analysis estimates out-of-pocket medical expenses pushed 16,700 children into poverty that year, while work-related costs, including child care, did so for 13,400.

The credit’s suspension comes as Colorado lawmakers prepare for another difficult budget year when they return to the Capitol in January. Researchers say the new poverty measure could help lawmakers assess how proposed tax changes or reductions in public assistance may affect children before those policies take effect.