Finally Some Good News

Things are starting to look up. S got a healthy raise and bonus for the second year in a row after many years of sh*t and stagnant pay.  He's getting closer to catching me in the salary dept!

And, we got this in the mail when we got back from vacation:

A Letter From the Tax Man Stating That We Finally Get the Rest of The Credit

Persistence pays off!  Of course I will be way more excited when the money is safely in our bank account. Oh, and we received 3 pieces of mail telling us that we were getting the credit money. Ha, bureaucrats!!

p.s.  It took about a year and 3 months, and a snarky letter pointing out that we followed their own damn rules.

Adoption Tax Credit Update

A recap: One year ago we submitted amended 2010 returns to claim 2009 adoption expenses. They sent us two letters over the course of a year; the first asking us to resubmit documentation (along with Baby X's ss# despite the fact that we would have been claiming the credit while we were waiting and there would have been no baby yet, but what-the-hell-ever) and the second that we would get an answer in 45 days. In December 2012 they closed the file with no explanation.  We found out in January 2013, when S went to the office in person only to be told they couldn't give him a reason why it was closed, but there was a zero balance showing. 

We resubmitted the 2010 amended return in February 2013. This time we included a detailed letter pointing out that we are following the rules as laid out by the tax man. In other words, educating them on their own damn rules. We received a letter after 12 weeks asking for the supporting documentation. For the fourth time we submitted the documentation and this time included another letter pointing out exactly which charges we are claiming. (Apparently they can't read an itemized receipt from the agency, or canceled checks).

Recently, we received a letter from the State regarding our 2010 return and some discrepancy they think they found in the W-2s versus what was claimed on the state return.  We sent in the requested documentation and see no discrepancy between our state return and our W-2s. Coincidence?

Website-Taxes-Stuff

Our website is up even though it's not quite finished yet.  Today I spent a fair amount of time cutting our video in half and feel so cool that I did it all by myself.  I've had limited contact with our friend who put it all together, so I just randomly decided to see if he had anything up yet.  It was weird to type in the url and see it come up with our larger than life faces!

Advice for anyone looking to set up a website - if you don't use one of those services (that charges way too much) I suggest looking for a template to buy.  Our guy suggested we buy a template by pr.o pho.to partially because it was used on a website that we really liked and because it's easy to edit.  It wasn't particularly cheap, but it looks awesome, and we'll be able make changes to it ourselves once he gets the initial set-up done.

We are re-submitting the amendment to our 2010 taxes for the credit, along with a letter that may or may not be read before being tossed into the circular file.  After re-reading the rules, there's no doubt in our minds that we qualify and we did right the first time.

The joys of parenting hit hard this week.  S and I had planned to go skiing on Friday until Baby X hardly ate all day Thursday, was lethargic, and developed a fever Thursday night.  Fan-tas-tic.  S stayed home with him on Friday and took him to the pediatrician.  Double ear-infection.  I knew it!  He didn't have super obvious symptoms other than being congested with a cough and runny nose for more than 2 weeks.  He also started waking up in the middle of the night which is unusual for him.  Anyway, some antibiotics and he's much better.  Next time I'll follow my instincts.  I almost took him in on Thursday but thought I was being paranoid (we didn't know about him acting funny at day care until S picked him up as he didn't develop a fever when he was there).  That little stumble cost me a ski day!

Murphy's Law also hit in a big way.  Since Friday was kaput, we decided to go for Sunday.  Thing is, I had to be back in town by 3:30pm and Sundays can be dicey on the drive home.  But, we figured we'd get up there early, leave really early and have plenty of time.  Got my parents lined up to watch Baby X and we were all set.  Until we woke up this morning to a huge snowstorm.  So, after some hemming and hawing I decided not to go because I didn't want to risk getting stuck up there.  Wouldn't ya' know, my afternoon activity got cancelled because of the snow.  Eh, at least there were tasks around the house to get done.  Turns out Baby X likes to sweep...yeeeaaahh.

The t.ax man can kiss my ass

We found out yesterday that our refiled 2010 taxes to include the adoption tax credit for 2009 was closed.

No money.

No letter.

No reason.

S went into the office and the sourpuss behind the desk had no explanation.

We have to resubmit? I guess, but I'm so pissed. This will be the third go-round. We obviously qualify and have all the documentation.

Give me the money assholes!

I Sent My Letters to Save the Adoption Tax Credit

I wrote to my Representative and both Senators.  Oddly enough, I waffled a bit on whether to do it, probably motivated by the fact that it's been six months since we submitted our amended return to get part of the credit.  I'm really frustrated that we followed the rules, yet here we sit, with less than half of the tax credit in our bank account and the rest on some bean counter's desk.

But I digress.  I wrote because I started thinking about the other options for us if the tax credit (if it ever shows up in it's entirety) didn't exist.  Just borrow the money against our house?  Sure, why not eat up our equity to build a family?  It's the equivalent of a car loan to adopt, and that car is pretty darn nice.  So, we should just take out a car loan in order to build our family?

Or, look at it this way, if I had gotten pregnant naturally, then my health insurance would have covered most of cost of prenatal visits and the hospital stay for the birth.  I wouldn't have shelled out $20,000 for that pregnancy and birth, but it would have cost way more than that.  Huh, when you look at it that way, the adoption tax credit is a mere pittance.  Now that I've written this paragraph, I realize this example might fall more into the category of "rationalization" rather than "good example", but I'm tired and this was the first example that popped into my head.

The point is, the tax credit helped us adopt Baby X, and we really want to have two children.  Just because I'm not fertile doesn't mean that I am willing to give up the dream of being a family of four.  I've already given up enough in time, money, and grief.  Our everyday expenses have gone up dramatically and every little bit helps.   No one would bat an eye if I said that we were going to get pregnant again and that costs nothing (if I was fertile).  Why do I feel like I have to defend wanting to get a tax credit for taking the less-traveled, way more expensive path of adoption to build my family? 

So, I wrote my letters. If you want to write yours, feel free to snag mine.  Most of it is from a form letter on Save the Adoption Tax Credit website, with my story embedded in the second paragraph.  They make it easy!

Dear Senator/Representative,

I am writing to ask you to support the adoption tax credit by becoming a cosponser of S.3616/H.R.4373.  The adoption tax credit 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.

As an adoptive parent beginning the process to adopt a second time, the adoption tax credit is especially important to me.  My husband and I went through infertility treatments for years before deciding to pursue adoption as an option for building our family.  Two years of frustrating and invasive testing and treatments took their toll on our finances as well as our emotional health, and knowing that there was another option helped us to move past the grief of infertility.  Today we are the proud parents of a wonderful little boy, and the adoption tax credit helped to offset the costs of his adoption.  We have been through the wringer to get to this point of being a family of three, but do not want to give up the dream of giving our son a sibling.  So we recently started the adoption process again, and as everything does, the cost of the next adoption has gone up quite a bit.  While both of us are working, I am currently under a pay freeze, and my husband went through several years of a pay freeze due to the recession.   The tax credit that we will receive helps us to breathe a little easier when it comes to budgeting.

If Congress does not take action, the adoption tax credit as we know it will expire at the end of 2012.  The credit will be reduced to $6,000 and will only benefit the few families who adopt children with special needs and have qualified adoption expenses.  Most families adopting children from foster care, inter-country 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 as possible find the permanent, loving family they need and deserve. And for 2012 and future years 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” credit for children with special needs.

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.

Tying Up the Loose Ends and ICLW

Happy ICLW!  Things around here are better than my last post although there's still a crap-ton of work to do.  It's all about giving myself a break at the moment.  Everyone thinks I'm a great colleague, worker-bee, friend, mother and wife.  Perhaps I need to start thinking it too.

I had a discussion with Therapist about whether I might want to TTC again.  Yeah, I know, I've been adamant here in this space about NOT TTC and really not caring about getting pregnant, but it's something that had to be explored.  In the course of our discussion, I talked about how we would have to be aggressive (I'm 38, unexplained infertility with minimal endometriosis....and I'm 38, did I mention that?).  The thought of that made me even more tired than I already am.  The thought of going back to an RE and of living my life in 2-week increments felt crushing.  There's no guarantee that if we do treatments (which I would push to IVF and I'm not super excited about giving myself rounds and rounds of shots) that there will be a baby at the end of it.  So, truly, I'm not down with that path.  We aren't preventing, and I have been more relaxed about the rhythm method, so it's down to a miracle pregnancy at this point.  I'm ok with that.   Things with my family are somewhat better, but I've had to draw some pretty strict boundaries at the moment because I don't have the energy to deal while I keep working on myself.

Despite our adoption wait probably being longer than the first time, I at least know the outcome.  That's more comforting than getting anxious about whether or a procedure worked and then being crushed when it doesn't.  We will use a web profile site, and that might help us find a match more quickly.  It's a little weird thinking about putting so much information out to the public-at-large, but that's how some matches are being made these days.  (Isn't it funny how I'm worried about our adoption profile, which in reality doesn't contain as much information as this blog?)

Today we finally got around to shooting our video profile. I watched our last video to get an idea of what we said previously and everything turned out differently anyway.  I think we did better this time in front of the camera and I felt more relaxed about it.  Part of the reason is that we aren't as into trying to "sell" ourselves as we were the first time.  C never watched our video.  As in most cases, it was one thing in our profile that caught her attention, and the decision was made.  I have started my letter and am about half way through.  Good thing I kept copies of our letters because there isn't a whole lot to change or add and in fact I'm trying to whittle it down a bit (it was 6 pages long last time...too long!).  S has yet to do his, but I know that if I get mine done first, it'll motivate him to get his done. :)

Once those three things are completed, we'll be done with our agency profile and will have to start work on the online profile, although we may put that off for a little while. 

Speaking of financials - We freaking followed the I-R-S rules for the credit and those jack-offs just sent us another letter saying they'll get back to us in 45 days.  Morons.  We're still waiting for a big chunk of the credit to be refunded to us because we amended our 2010 tax return for the 2008 and 2009 adoption-related charges.  I'm so pissed.  We should have just tried to claim the whole damn thing under our 2011 return (which is NOT how the rules read).

Not So Easy After All and Other Stuff

We finally got a response from the I.R.S on our 2010 amended tax return for the rest of our adoption credit.  It's been "referred" to another department.  Welp, I can see where this is going.  Stay tuned for bitchy posts about the idiocy of dealing with these guys.
I've had two sessions with a therapist.  It's going well so far.  She's very results oriented (which gives me homework, boo), but it also should help me move beyond some of the things that hold me back. 
Baby X is not a baby anymore.  Seriously, he hit the toddler room and it is over.  It's kind of bittersweet.  Fun and exhausting too.
Weeks ago I started a post on a second adoption....suffice to say, the process is started and we're hoping to be on the list soon.  And the post is forthcoming soon.  This weekend I hope!
Do you ever dread going to work because of the annoying shit going on?  That's where I am.  Dealing with annoying crap instead of actually getting reports written.  Blah.

Well, That Was Easy

After biting our nails over the fact that we mailed in taxes over a month ago with no acknowledgement from the tax-man, our refund complete with the tax credit (for 2010 and 2011) showed up.  Apparently we were lucky enough to dodge any kind of audit.  We still have an amended tax return with a pretty good portion of the tax credit that we're waiting for, but at least we managed to get through the first hurdle.

The Tax Time of Year

After sporadically working on our taxes for a month and a half, we're finally ready to mail them in.  Dawn at Creating a Family has had some great blog posts and podcasts specifically talking about the credit and how to make the process as smooth as possible, so we've incorporated many of those tips and hope we get the refund before the end of the year.  Yeah.  You read that right.  I'll consider it success if the check shows up by December 31.

Apparently, it seems that most of the returns containing the adop.tion cre.dit are going through a correspondence audit, and often the supporting documents are not making it to the auditors desk.  Doesn't that sound like government efficiency?  So, S numbered every page of our return, and put his name and SS# on each page since he's the primary filer.  Hopefully that helps, if not, we'll just resubmit. Because the adoption was finalized in 2011, we are claiming 2010 and 2011 expenses on this return.

Documents we're submitting for proof are:
- final itemized receipt from the adoption agency
- letter approving our homestudy,
- placement document
- final adoption decree
- copies of canceled checks

I'm hoping that's overkill, because it's pretty much everything except the homestudy itself, which I really don't want to submit.  It's entirely too personal in my opinion and shouldn't be required for proof.

We also amended last year's (2010) return to claim 2009 expenses, since we didn't claim the credit.  For that return we sent in the itemized receipt showing expenses up to 2009, the corresponding canceled checks and the letter approving our homestudy.  For future information, if you are adopting domestically, you are supposed to claim the credit the year after expenses have incurred whether or not you have a placement at that time.  International has different rules.  Don't make it clear or easy to follow or anything...thanks a lot I-R-S.

Lastly, I had spaced applying for Baby X's SS#, and so a few weeks ago, I nervously drove to the local office to submit the application, hoping against hope that it wouldn't take 3 months to get.  As it turns out, Friday afternoon at 2:30pm is an awesome time to go, the place was empty, and the card showed up in the mail about a week later.  *whew*

A Quick Note on the Ta.x Credit *edited for wrong info I had - sorry*

The adopti.on t.ax credit is quite helpful....if you know how to apply for it.  Here's what I've found out over the past few days, and I'll use our expenses as an example.  We are claiming the credit as a private (not special needs) domestic ado.ption.

We had expenses (agency fees) in the years 2008; 2009; 2010; 2011.

We can't claim all of the expenses on 2011 taxes.  Damn.

We have to go back to our 2009 return and amend it for 2008 expenses, then carry over to 2010 anything that we don't qualify for (i.e. it wasn't refundable in those years so if the credit is more than our tax liability, can't get it back).

Then, we amend our 2010 return to include any carry over and 2009 expenses.  The credit is refundable for 2010 so we'll get all of the credit (our expenses paid).

In 2011, we claim 2010 and 2011 expenses.

So, if like us, you were utterly confused by the language and thought you couldn't claim the credit until the adoption is final, then some legwork and backtracking is needed to get the full amount.  But, I hear this is the way to do it, because if the powers that be deny the full amount (like, we try to take all years on 2011 taxes) then it's a mess to try to get the rest, or it's gone.  Not sure which, whatever it is, it's probably a big pain in the ass.

It still might be a pain in the ass.

Need more info?  Go to www.nacac.org  they have a t.ax credit tab with lots of tips, faqs and an email address.  They got back to me within a few days.  Score for service!

You can also go to www.creatingafamily.org

Happy ta.x $eason!