Hi friends! I'm asking you to do something again! :D Here's the story.
Those of you that are currently or have in the past adopted are familiar with the federal adoption tax credit, but those of you that haven't may not be aware of it. Basically, the idea is that the federal government provides a tax credit that helps offset the cost of international adoption. The process is that after a child is brought home into a family, the parents document the costs on their federal income tax, and are provided, as part of their tax refund, a credit for taxes they have already paid. In most cases, the tax credit does not cover all the expenses of an international adoption, but it does significantly help. To give you an idea, for 2011, adoptive families are eligible for a maximum of $13, 360 for 2011 returns. In our family, we have definitely relied on the tax credit for our previous two adoptions, and have been counting on it for this third one.
But, what do you think? For the 2012 year, the tax credit has drastically changed to a maximum of $12,170 for 2012 returns only. Furthermore, the 2012 Tax Credit will not be refundable for adoptions initiated after 2011, which means a large number of families may not be able to get any of their adoption-related expenses back (the average cost to adopt a child is $25k- $35k or more) and possibly prevent people from adopting a child at all.
And to make it even worse, in 2013 it will revert back to a maximum tax credit of $6,000 for parents adopting children with special needs, and there will be no adoption tax credit available for all other adoptive parents beginning in tax year 2013.
Will you please help by checking out this website and signing their petition? Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
http://www.change.org/petitions/make-adoption-costs-fully-refundable-in-the-2012-2013-tax-years#