Let Your Voice Be Heard!

The adoption tax credit was a nearly  $13,000 tax credit which allowed families to receive help with the cost of adoption. For most people, this barely covers half of the total cost of their adoption. And for many people, they wouldn't be able to adopt without the credit.

The current adoption tax credit is set to expire on December 31, 2012. If that happens, adoption may require a cost insurmountable for many American families, resulting in fewer children finding love and permanency through adoption. Although the credit remains through 2012, many families will not benefit because it is not refundable. In 2013, the credit will decrease to only $6,000 and will be available to very few adoptive families.Would you please take just a few minutes of your time to email or call your state representative and ask them to not let this credit expire? Every representative from all states need to be contacted.

The Adoption Tax Credit website has a sample letter and the email addresses to all local representatives to make it easy for you. Click on any of the words in red in this blog to go straight to the website to do this. Follows is the sample letter. It only takes a couple of minutes to cut and paste the letter and email it.

Planned Parenthood received $349.6 million in tax dollars in the last fiscal year, and they paid their president $385,163 and performed 324,008 abortions with that money. Surely we can provide funding to people who want to instead choose life for their child.

On April 17, Representative Bruce Braley introduced the Making Adoption Affordable Act (HR 4373). If you are contacting your Representative’s office, ask your Representative to become a co-sponsor of HR 4373. There is no companion legislation in the Senate yet, so you can simply ask your Senators to support an adoption tax credit that is inclusive, refundable, flat for special needs adoptions, and permanent. Here is a sample letter:

Dear Senator/Representative NAME:

I am writing to ask you to support the adoption tax credit, which is set to expire on December 31, 2012. Since 1997, the adoption tax credit has helped tens of thousands of parents offset the high cost of adoption, making it possible for them to provide children with loving, permanent families.

The adoption tax credit is especially important to me and my family because… (Tell Congress why you care. Your Members of Congress value your voice!)

If Congress does not take action, the current adoption tax credit will expire at the end of 2012. The credit will be reduced to $6,000, and will only benefit the few families that adopt children with special needs and have qualified adoption expenses. Most families adopting children from foster care, intercountry adoption, and domestic infant adoption will not receive any benefit. Without the adoption tax credit, many parents hoping to adopt will be unable to do so, and others will face great financial hardship. The adoption tax credit is essential to ensuring that as many children as possible find the forever families they deserve and ensuring that those families are in a more stable financial position to provide an environment where children can thrive.

The adoption tax credit must be extended to help as many children are possible find the permanent, loving family they need and deserve. And for 2012 it should be made refundable again so that most adoptive families will benefit from it. The best adoption tax credit would be permanent, refundable, inclusive of all types of adoption, and remain a “flat” tax for children with special needs. Enclosed, for your reference, is a factsheet with more information about the adoption tax credit.

On behalf of the countless children waiting to be adopted, and the many thousands of families that stand to benefit from the adoption tax credit, thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,

NAME
CITY, STATE
EMAIL ADDRESS / PHONE NUMBER