Adoption Tax Credit Set to Expire

Unless new legislation is passed, the adoption expense tax credit that allows many adopting families to take a credit of up to $10,000 against their federal income taxes is scheduled to expire in 2010. As you probably know, adoption is an expensive undertaking. We spent about $13,000 on Asher's adoption. We have friends who spent $24,000 last year to adopt their daughter from South Korea.

The IRS currently offers a credit for "qualified adoption expenses". Qualified expenses include: adoption fees, court costs, attorney fees, traveling expenses , and other expenses directly related to and for which the principal purpose is the legal adoption of an eligible child (from Wikipedia).

Without this credit, Scot and I would likely not have been financially able to adopt Riley and Asher. Obviously it is important to us that the adoption tax credit is extended. Please ask your elected official to support Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, H.R. 213. This legislation is needed to make the tax credit permanent.



If you were expecting to spend the next 10 minutes checking blogs and facebook, please take a little of that time to send an email to your senators and congressman. I'll do my best to make it simple for you.

Please check this website to see if your Representative currently supports this bill (just click on "show cosponsors"). Our representative here in Fort Collins does not. The rep for Utah County and the south Salt Lake 'burbs does, as well as the rep for Texas District 26 (the area north of Fort Worth). However, Rep. McCaul in Texas District 10 (north Austin and Manor) is not on that list, nor are the other two reps in Utah, including Rob Bishop in Salt Lake City.

Here is the link if you need to find your representative or senator’s contact info: Members of Congress & U.S. Congressional District Maps - GovTrack.us. From there you can click on the rep's name, then "official website," and then the Contact button for the simplest way to contact each person.

Sample letters (one for senators and one for congressmen), which you can personalize with your information, can be found at the bottom of this article at AdoptiveFamilies.com. These letters are written for adoptive families like us. But you can change that part to include how your sibling's/cousin's/neighbor's/friend's adoption has affected you and your family.



Thank you so much for taking a little of your time to help adoptive families. I know if you're reading this blog, you have been impacted by adoption. Many of you have other friends or family members who have adopted as well. Maybe some of you will even consider adoption yourself. This legislation will have a big impact on the ability for couples (including us) to adopt in the future.