Tax credit for adoption from foster care?

April 15, 2010

Longing2bMom

The IRS definition leaves it up to the individual states to determine what children are "special needs". Basically, if the child is eligible for adoption assistance from their state, then they meet the IRS definition for "special needs" and you can take the entire credit. You can check with your state guidelines to see what qualifies a child for adoption assistance. It varies considerably from state to state. Some states (i.e. California) classify virtually all children adopted from foster care as "special needs", whereas others have restrictions based on age, race, or emotional and/or physical disability.

while i always think the best thing to do is ask your tax guy about taxes and your worker about whether the child has special needs or not...here is a little site i like that has some information on each state's definition of special needs: [url=http://www.nacac.org/adoptionsubsidy/stateprofiles.html]NACAC | Adoption Subsidy[/url]

i agree about the california thing....that is why i was not completely clear on the answer....all our fost/adopt kids are californians. :)