New tax credit eases caregiving costs for working families—but access gaps remain
S. 925 — Credit for Caring Act of 2025 · Filed by Shelley Capito (R-WV) · 11 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new federal tax credit for working family caregivers. If you earn at least $7,500 and pay out-of-pocket expenses to care for a spouse or relative with long-term care needs (certified by a health professional), you can claim a credit worth 30% of qualifying expenses above $2,000, up to a maximum of $5,000 per year. The credit phases out for higher earners (starting at $150,000 for joint filers) and covers costs like in-home care, medical equipment, respite care, counseling, lost wages from unpaid time off, and travel related to caregiving.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is straightforward: it creates a new refundable tax credit specifically designed to offset out-of-pocket caregiving expenses for working families. This is a direct fiscal benefit to individuals, not a regulatory change or industry carve-out.
What the text implies
- The credit may incentivize informal caregiving arrangements over formal long-term care insurance, potentially reducing demand for private LTC insurance products and affecting the insurance sector's revenue model.
- Certification requirement by a licensed health care practitioner creates a gatekeeping mechanism; individuals without access to such practitioners or in underserved areas may face barriers to claiming the credit.
- The credit does not require the care recipient to be a dependent for tax purposes, which may create coordination issues with other family tax benefits and could lead to unintended stacking of benefits.
- Lost wages as a qualified expense (verified by employer) may be difficult to substantiate and could create administrative burden for both taxpayers and employers in documenting unpaid caregiving time.
- The phase-out structure (reducing credit by $100 per $1,000 over threshold) creates a steep marginal tax rate for caregivers in the $150k–$200k income range, potentially discouraging work or caregiving in that band.
Who it affects
Working families bearing the financial burden of caregiving receive direct tax relief, reducing out-of-pocket costs for a widespread and often-overlooked expense. The credit is broadly available to middle and lower-income earners and covers a wide range of care-related expenses, addressing a genuine public need without narrowing benefits to a specific industry or corporate interest.
Who stands to gain
- working families with caregiving expenses
- long-term care service providers (home care agencies, medical equipment suppliers)
- health care practitioners (certification revenue)
- assistive technology and home modification companies
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), AIG (insurance regulatory exposure), Fidelity & Guaranty Life (FBK, insurance regulatory exposure), Federated Hermes American Opportunity Fund (FMAO, regulatory exposure), Principal Financial Group (PRU, insurance regulatory exposure), Prudential Financial (PRU, insurance regulatory exposure)
Where it stands
11 cosponsors: 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, 1 Independents.
- Mar 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 11, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
19 lobbying clients named this bill on 27 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Jun 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $11,005,538 in lobbying spend. A filing names 13 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 96% of bills with at least one filing.
Shelley Capito, the sponsor, reported $2,021,591 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AARP — $5,300,000 on 1 filing
- Alzheimer's Association — $3,590,000 on 2 filings
- The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research — $360,000 on 2 filings
- American Psychological Association Services Inc.(fka American Psychological Assn — $340,000 on 1 filing
- National Marrow Donor Program — $280,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 2, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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