A plan to expand the existing child tax credit is currently in the U.S. Senate, where it faces an uncertain future as lawmakers haggle over funding.

But the prospect of changes to the credit shouldn’t stop anyone from filing their taxes now, according to officials with the Internal Revenue Service.

The proposed $78 billion Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act includes a provision that would increase the maximum refundable amount per child over the next three years. Currently, the child tax credit provides $2,000 but only $1,600 of that is refundable, meaning you can receive that money back even if you don’t owe any taxes. The act would increase the maximum refundable amount to $1,800 for 2023, meaning you could claim it when filing your taxes in 2024. It would then increase to $1,900 for tax year 2024 and $2,000 for tax year 2025, with both amounts being adjusted for inflation.

It’s unclear if the expanded child tax credit will become law before the end of the 2024 tax filing season – if it’s passed at all – but if it does it will be applied retroactively to the 2023 tax year, Kiplinger reported. If the bill becomes law, refund adjustments would be made within six to 12 weeks and taxpayers wouldn’t be required to take any additional actions if they’ve already filed their 2023 returns.

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In other words, there’s no need to wait to file your taxes to see what happens with the credit.

“Taxpayers should not wait for this legislation to file their returns. We will take care of getting any additional refunds to taxpayers who have already filed. They won’t need to take additional steps,” IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said.

According to IRS statistics for the week ending March 1, the IRS has processed 53.2 million tax returns and issued about 36.3 million refunds. The average refund amount is up slightly from last year to $3,182. Tax deadline for most filers is April 15.