Your Voice Counts!
Please ask your two senators and your representative to support the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act (S.1458/H.R.2833).
Senate Outreach
Find your senators’ contact information by visiting: www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
House Outreach
Find your Representative’s contact information by visiting: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Resources
Below are a number of resources to help your advocacy efforts:
What is the Adoption Tax Credit?
The adoption tax credit provides financial benefits to families that open their homes to children through adoption from foster care, intercountry adoption, or private domestic adoption.
The adoption tax credit, with a maximum of $16,810 for tax year 2024, has helped to offset the high cost of adoption for hundreds of thousands of families since it was established in 1997. With more than 108,000 children and youth in U.S. foster care waiting for adoption, and millions more around the world in need of permanent families, making the adoption tax credit refundable is vital to providing love, safety, and permanency through adoption to as many children as possible.
Why Do We Need to Make the Adoption Tax Credit Refundable?
A nonrefundable credit is subtracted from your income tax liability, up to the total amount you owe, but unlike a refundable tax credit, a nonrefundable credit cannot reduce your tax balance beyond zero.
The adoption tax credit is currently a nonrefundable credit. It helps many families, but could help many more families if it were refundable. With the cost of adoptions continuing to increase, and thousands of children in the U.S. and around the world in need of permanent families, this legislation provides a meaningful resource to overcome the financial barriers to adoption.
A refundable tax credit would allow taxpayers with little or no tax liability to claim the entire value of the credit in a given year. Not only would a refundable credit promote equity among adoptive parents with different incomes, but it would also make adoption less financially burdensome—particularly for families who adopt from foster care.
Important Tips
When making your contact:
- Be sure to say, “I am a constituent.”
- If you’re calling, ask for the staff person that handles tax issues or adoption-related issues for the office. If no one is available, leave a detailed message with contact information.
- Be direct in your request: “I want my member of Congress to co-sponsor the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act.”
- Make it relevant. Share your personal adoption experience and explain why the adoption tax credit is important.
- If your legislator does not support the adoption tax credit, find out why and try to further educate him or her on the issue.