A Child For Us

Great News for Adoptive Parents!

One of the biggest reasons people decide not to adopt is for financial reasons. There is all this talk about how expensive it can be and while international adoptions can break the bank there are certainly more affordable options. Ours is about the cost of a car… and we’re not talking luxury. Not to mention the Adoption Tax Credit that has been in effect for a few years now giving families a tax credit of $12,170 till the end of 2010. There was no guarantee of its extension meaning we might not benefit from the credit. However, I just received this E-mail from our agency:

Within the large and newsworthy health care bill signed into law yesterday by Pres. Obama, I’m happy to share to share positive news on the Federal Adoption Tax Credit. Our friends at the Christian Alliance for Orphans have provided some excellent analysis and link to the bill itself on their blog site at:http://chrisitianallianceblog.org/?p=563 

Here are four talking points below that I only modified slightly from their blog. The last bullet point is the biggest change as it allows adoptive families to receive their full tax credit in the first year after their adoption. We will be pitching some local media outlets in some of your branch areas about this news to see if they have interest in a story about this and will let you if they have some interest which could give Bethany a lot of visibility as the adoption expert. If you have any interest in reaching out to any local media directly, please work with John Van Valkenburg to make sure we’re not duplicating any efforts. 

• The current adoption tax credit has been extended until the end of 2011;
• The value of the adoption tax credit has been increased by $1,000 from $12,170 to $13,170.
• The increase is “retroactive,” meaning that any adoption occurring after January 1, 2010 is eligible for this higher credit.
• The credit is now refundable. This means that even families that owe zero taxes can receive the full tax credit in the form of a tax refund to help with their adoption-related expenses in the first year.