tax credit - employer provided benefit qs

Good questions! The answers should be fairly easy to understand. #1 - The key point is that each individual dollar you spend on adoption expenses can only be reimbursed to you ONCE. So if your employer reimursed it, then you can't claim the adoption credit for it - even though the employer didn't reimburse it until a year after they should have. So just gather up your expenses - find receipts that tally up to the amount that your employer reimbursed, and put them in one pile. The ones that are left are the ones you can claim on your taxes for the federal adoption tax credit. So the word "no" goes on the form, but in writing down the dollar amount you're claiming for the adoption credit, act as if it's a "yes". Remember, if you claim an expense on your adoption credit that was (later) paid for by your employer, you'll have to refund the money to the IRS. So don't make that mistake - sort the receipts now to save yourself a headache later. #2 - According to the IRS, you intended to adopt a single baby boy. "mig42's son" is for IRS purposes a single person, never mind the fact that in your heart he was two separate people at two separate times. If you had successfully adopted the first child you were matched with, you would not have been matched with this one. It's strange, I know. So for IRS purposes, "yes" you filled out an 8839 for the same child. Now, the way the straight out adoption law was written and passed by Congress, it's a grey area. The legal language doesn't spell out anything regarding failed adoptions at all. If you have the money and the legal backup to chance an audit and actually ending up in court to argue the difference between the law wording and the IRS interpretation, then go right ahead. And of course there's always the chance you wouldn't get audited at all, if you want to take that risk then go right ahead. But the IRS-interpreted rules are pretty clear that their interpretation is if you intend to adopt a single child, then multiple unsuccessful attempts to adopt that single child all count as attempts to adopt the one that finally succeeds. Hope that helps!

That was VERY helpful...thanks DianeS!