ADOPTION CREDIT AWARENESS DAY – Although the official day was Feb 13, 2012, it’s never to late to spread the word about the Adoption Tax Credit. Voice For Adoption, the Dave Thomas Foundation and the North American Council on Adoptable Children are encouraging organizations to spread the word. The goal is to help adoptive families who are eligible to receive the benefit by educating them on how to claim the credit. Some Facts:
• Since 2003, families who adopted a U.S. child with special needs from foster care could claim a federal adoption tax credit even if they had no adoption expenses (as long as they met the fairly generous income requirements). • Children who receive adoption assistance/subsidy benefits are considered children with special needs. Even families who receive a deferred subsidy ($0 per month but medical coverage through the subsidy program) are eligible. • All adoptive families (except those who adopted a step-child) are eligible for the credit, but those who adopt children other than those with special needs must have—and be able to document, if requested by the IRS—qualified adoption expenses. • For 2010 and 2011 the credit was made refundable. If parents who adopted as long ago as 2005 had credit to carry forward into 2010, that amount of the credit also became refundable. In 2010 and 2011, parents can claim the credit even if they don’t have income or any tax liability. • The amount of the credit for 2011 is $13,360 per child.
To help spread the word, forward this link to family and friends where they’ll find more info and links to various IRS forms. Click Here.
The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy (NCALP) works to improve child welfare and adoption law, practices, and policies so that all children – especially those who have been abused or neglected or are dependent on the state for their care – can have healthy, safe, and stable homes. NCALP uses education, knowledge, leadership, and advocacy to further our mission, believing that children who live in safe and stable homes feel better about themselves, do better in school, receive better healthcare, and grow up to be better parents, workers, and citizens.Our research efforts are aimed at identifying the means through which child protection, foster care and adoption systems and processes can be improved. Center advocacy projects are aimed at bringing about these improvements through changes in the law and the way the law is implemented. Finally, our education programs are designed to assist judges, lawyers, government managers, social workers, families and other process stakeholders to know about strategies for making child welfare and adoption laws work in ways that will provide kids the stable families they deserve as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible.