Blog: Adoption Tax Credit

Adoption is already an expensive process and having some support from the government beyond the bare minimum goes a long way. The adoption tax credit has helped remove some of the costly expenses that come with adoption for families who adopt children from foster care.

The Adoption Tax Credit was introduced in 1997 as a non-refundable tax credit. At that time, the limit on the tax credit was $5,000. In the past 22 years it increased to about $13,460. When looking at the history of the ATC, what stands out is that during 2010 and 2011, the tax credit was in fact refundable. We can see what that means from the graph below:

As you can see, the cost of the ATC was about 1.2 billion dollars in 2010. This may seem like a really high number but when you consider the fact that the entire federal budget in 2010 was about 3 trillion, that's actually 0.0004 of the budget. In 2017, the Adoption Tax Credit was actually on the chopping block. Voice for Adoption understood the gravity of the situation and placed themselves at the forefront of saving the Adoption Tax Credit. Through the Adoption Tax Credit Working Group and the "Save the Adoption Tax Credit,” Voice for Adoption and its partners managed to not only save the ATC, but extend it indefinitely.

The tax credit is incredibly important for many reasons. It provides stability of a committed adoptive family, allowing the kid to grow and chase any dreams they would like. From the side of the parents adoption provides families with the ability to raise a child even if they cannot conceive themselves. It also allows parents that want to grow their families through alternate means. They will also be helping one of the 112,000 children ready to be adopted from the foster care system.

VFA is a powerful advocate on Capitol Hill for all adoption related topics and we lend our support to any organization who shares our goals.