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We are trying to file our taxes and have a question. We adoped through the Cherokee Nation so we didn't a lot of expenses other than buying all new things for baby and driving to court etc. Can we still use the adoption credit?
It looks like under this statement that he would qualify as a special needs child also, correct?
For both the credit or the exclusion, qualifying expenses include reasonable and necessary adoption fees, court costs, attorney fees, traveling expenses (including amounts spent for meals and lodging while away from home), and other expenses directly related to and for which the principal purpose is the legal adoption of an eligible child. An eligible child must be under 18 years old, or be physically or mentally incapable of caring for himself or herself. The adoption credit or exclusion cannot be taken for a child who is not a United States citizen or resident unless the adoption becomes final. An eligible child is also a child with special needs if he or she is a United States citizen or resident and a state determines that the child cannot or should not be returned to his or her parent's home and probably will not be adopted unless assistance is provided. Under certain circumstances, the amount of your qualified adoption expenses may be increased if you adopted an eligible child with special needs.
He doesn't have an special needs and would have been adopted easily.
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Ah! I understand you now. You aren't asking if this adoption qualifies for the adoption tax credit (because ALL adoptions qualify for it, up to the amount the adoptive parents spent for the adoption), you're asking for help making your list of expenses that you can submit. Is that right?
I don't know much, but as a starting point figure out anything that you were required to do in order to adopt him that cost any amount of money.
Did your homestudy cost anything?
Did parts of the homestudy cost anything? (Like fingerprints, or a CPR class, or buying fire extinguishers - anything like that)
Did you have any copying, filing, requesting, or mailing charges? (Did you have to pay someone to send you your birth certificate? Did you have to make photocopies of items before sending them? Did you have to mail documents somewhere?)
What appointments were you required to attend? How much did it cost you to attend them? (Gas prices or mileage, parking fees, etc)
Did you have any extra costs as a result of those appointments? (If they were in another town, perhaps you had to eat dinner away from home. Or perhaps they required you to stay in a hotel overnight.)
What about court costs? (Did you have to pay fees for any of that? Birth certificate issuing costs?)
What about post placement reports - did you have to do them and did they cost you anything?
I hope that helps, please correct me if I misunderstood your question again.