I did not adopt a special needs child for the refundable adoption tax credit. That would be insane. But...once I found out the credit was going to be refundable...I started planning for it. It could pay off some bills. Dee and I could go on a vacation. It would be the windfall I need to get us on a more solid ground for the new family style we have.
When I filed my return in January, I had no idea that it would be a five-month ordeal. The first letter I got said they were denying Dee because her SSN was wrong. I made the fatal error of NOT changing her SSN too close to my filing. I decided to wait to not confuse my taxes. Since I had to send all of the adoption paperwork, I wrote her name as Dee OldLastName NewLastName. It didn't match up in the system. Kicked her out as a dependent. Without a dependent, I didn't qualify for my head of household status. That would have been easy to clear up, but when I called, they had shipped my return cross-country to be examined for the tax credit. No one could fix that part...it would have to wait until the adoption credit was reviewed.
Oh...the drama of the tax credit. Faxing and refaxing paperwork. Dealing with not-so-polite IRS workers. Filling out releases for my Congressman. Waiting...waiting...waiting.
But here it is, on the first day of the sixth month after I filed, my refund is scheduled to be deposited in my account. We are paying bills. We will take a short trip. I will help family. And we will have breathing room. How nice!
I hope that next year it is communicated that if you file your tax return with this credit, it may take four - six months to get the refund. With that bit of knowledge, this could have been a lot less stressful.
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I think the audits came due in part to all of the back-filing that many families did for their adoptions over the last 5 years. Next year, the audits shouldn't be nearly as intense and lengthy, because the only people claiming the credit will be those that finalized in 2011. At least, I hope that will be the case.
ReplyDeleteI hope we get our new birth certificates quickly (like October at the latest) so that we can get their SSN and name corrected before tax season.
I'm happy we get to claim both kids, plus their adoption credits. That return will be our downpayment on the next house! :)
We are still not so patiently waiting.
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