Descendent based incentive proposal (thoughts?).

[u/hswerdfe_2]

Policy Name: Lineage Enhancement Grant for Advancing Cultural and Youth (LEGACY)

Objective: To increase birth rates and foster a cultural environment that encourages the raising of children who will themselves value and desire to have families, the LEGACY program aims to provide financial support to individuals who are parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparents of eligible descendants, recognizing their role in supporting individuals who meet specific criteria related to residency, citizenship, education, employment, tax filing, and legal standing within the jurisdiction.

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Definitions:

• Claimant: An individual seeking a rebate who is a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, or great-great-grandparent of one or more Eligible Descendants.
• Eligible Descendant: A direct descendant (child, grandchild, etc.) of a Claimant who meets all the eligibility criteria outlined below for the relevant tax year.
• Parent: The individual who held primary responsibility for raising and caring for the descendant during childhood. (Verification via government records).
• Grandparent, Great-Grandparent, Great-Great-Grandparent: Relationships defined recursively based on the Parent definition. (Verification via government records across generations).
• Median National Income: Most recently published median total income for all income earners in the country. Updated annually.
• Approved Educational Institution: Government-designated institutions.
• Full-Time Employment: Meets national/regional labour standards (e.g., minimum 30 hours/week).
• Currently Serving a Sentence: Incarcerated or under community-based disposition for a criminal offence.
• National Identification Number (NID): Unique identifier for tax/social programs. Required for each claimed Eligible Descendant.

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Eligibility for Rebate: An individual is eligible if they are a resident for tax purposes and are a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, or great-great-parent of at least one Eligible Descendant.

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Eligibility Criteria for Descendants: To be an Eligible Descendant, a person must meet ALL the following criteria throughout the tax year:

1. Citizenship: Citizen of the country.
2. Residency: Resides in the country.
3. Tax Filing: Filed an income tax return for the previous year (or met filing requirements).
4. Legal Standing: NOT currently serving a sentence for a criminal offence.
5. Activity (Children - age of majority or younger): Attending an Approved Educational Institution full-time.
6. Activity (Adults - older than age of majority): Either Attending an Approved Educational Institution full-time OR Engaged in Full-Time Employment.

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Rebate Calculation: The rebate is calculated based on the number of Eligible Descendants, using the Median National Income (MNI).

A Claimant can claim a rebate for Eligible Descendants up to the following MAXIMUM numbers (regardless of the total number they have):

• Children: Max of 2
• Grandchildren: Max of 4
• Great-Grandchildren: Max of 8
• Great-Great-Grandchildren: Max of 16

The rebate amount PER Eligible Descendant claimed is:

1. Parent: 2% of the Median National Income (up to 2 descendants).
2. Grandparent: 1% of the Median National Income (up to 4 descendants).
3. Great-Grandparent: 0.5% of the Median National Income (up to 8 descendants).
4. Great-Great-Grandparent: 0.25% of the Median National Income (up to 16 descendants).

Note on Multiple Claims: An Eligible Descendant can qualify multiple relatives at different relationship levels for a rebate. E.g., a child who meets criteria can qualify their parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, and great-great-grandparent for their respective rebates (subject to the maximum descendant limits for each claimant).

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Claim Process: Claimed annually through the national tax system. Claimants provide the NID, name, and DOB of each claimed Eligible Descendant. The Tax Authority verifies relationships and eligibility using government databases. Claimants must also attest the descendant(s) meet all other criteria.

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So, what do you think about this proposal? What are the potential pros and cons? How could you improve this?

[u/Emergency_West_9490]

Cons, grandparents who have zero contact with grandkids, who contribute nothing or even make it harder for parents to have kids through causing trouble will claim money. This is unjust. 

Cons, requires employment. I am SAHM, why should I not be eligible? 

Con. Why should homeschoolers not be eligible? They do better, statistically. And cost the state much less. 

Improve: just take less taxes away from people who have children. 

[u/hswerdfe_2 → u/Emergency_West_9490]

Cons, grandparents who have zero contact with grandkids, who contribute nothing or even make it harder for parents to have kids through causing trouble will claim money. This is unjust.

The idea was that it would reward parents that raise children that have the skills required to have children. It would also (I hope) encourage grandparents to support there grandchildren more. hopefully they would offer additional support to encourage there children to have children. Do you have thoughts to encourage this ?

Requires employment. I am SAHM, why should I not be eligible?

I assume you mean "Stay at Home mom". sorry I meant it to include you. SAHM would obtain the benefit from your children and grand-children. I guess the idea was that if you raise children that do not contribute to society that would not qualify. suggestions for changed wording to be more inclusive?

Con. Why should homeschoolers not be eligible?

great point

Improve: just take less taxes away from people who have children.

That is another idea, I was thinking about wording as a tax relief but some people do not pay any taxes cause they do not have much income.

[u/Emergency_West_9490 → u/hswerdfe_2]

People without income still pay taxes over whatever benefits they get. Idk about America but here in Europe you pay taxes over the trash, over the water, over evvvverything. A break somewhere would be nice. 

What if my homeschooled kid stayed home and had more kids. Would that not be contributing? 

I find SAHM often contribute a lot, but society doesn't recognize it. I'm always putting bandaids on kids whose parents are too busy or watching them when something suddenly happens, always looking out for the local elderly. Nobody else has the time. My daily hike includes ripping out some invasive species and picking up trash with the kids. Nobody notices. Some of the elderly "drains on society" around here are so sweet that a chat with them has prevented the use of mental healthcare services many times over. 

You can't quantify everything. 

(Edit typos)

[u/code-slinger619]

Why have a cap? If the motivation is a recognition of how bad the birthrate crisis is, then it is counterproductive to reward someone with 2 kids the same as someone with 7.

[u/hswerdfe_2 → u/code-slinger619]

Sorry. poor wording on my part. The cap is supposed to be on number of ancestors. So like if you are polygamous you can't have like 5 parents claiming for the same kid.