Save the Adoption Tax Credit is the effort of a national collaboration of organizations and individuals called the Adoption Tax Credit Working Group that have united to support the cause of adoption by advocating for the adoption tax credit.
We hope you will join us in advocating to ensure the adoption tax credit remains permanent and to make it refundable, which will allow it to aid lower- and moderate-income adoptive families as Congress intended! A refundable credit will do a better job of encouraging adoption and giving every child a better chance to have a permanent, loving family.
The adoption tax credit, which can be claimed for eligible adoption-related expenses, has helped thousands of American families offset the high cost of adoption since the credit was established in 1997. Since 2003, families who adopted children with special needs could claim the full credit whether they had any adoption expenses or not. The credit has made adoption a more viable option for many parents who might not otherwise have been able to afford adoption, allowing them to provide children with loving, permanent families. With more than 100,000 children in U.S. foster care available for adoption, and countless millions of orphaned and abandoned children around the world, the continuation of the adoption tax credit is vital to providing love, safety, and permanency to as many children as possible.
We hope you will join us in our advocacy effort. Current proposed legislation is described in the Legislation section and advocacy tools and tips are listed under Advocate! Answers to the most common questions about the credit can be found under FAQs.
The Adoption Tax Credit Working Group’s goal is an adoption tax credit that is:
- Inclusive: Children, whether adopted from foster care, through intercountry adoption, or through private domestic adoption should be able to benefit from the adoption tax credit.
- Permanent: The adoption tax credit should become a permanent part of the tax code to ensure continued support to those who bring children into families through adoption.
- Refundable: The adoption tax credit should be refundable to ensure that families with moderate and lower incomes receive the full benefit of the credit.
- Flat for Special Needs: All families who adopt a child with special needs should be eligible for a “flat” tax credit, meaning they can claim the maximum credit without documenting expenses. This distinction, which is already in current law, recognizes the fact that many of the expenses associated with adopting children with special needs show up after an adoption is finalized.
The bill to avert the fiscal cliff, which was signed on January 2, 2013, made the adoption tax credit permanent, extending the credit as it was in the 2001 Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. Please read our press release on the legislation.
The credit will remain flat for special needs adoptions, which means that people who adopt children who are determined to be special needs (or hard to place) by a state or county child welfare agency can claim the maximum credit regardless of their expenses.
The adoption credit is not refundable for 2012 and beyond, which means that only those individuals with tax liability will benefit. Please help us achieve this legislative goal!
