OT: Those who adopted in 2011

[moonpie85]

Okay so I know several of us on here adopted in 2011. Have any of you heard anything on your taxes yet? Just curious if everybody taking the credit will automatically get audited like in 2010. I know people last year who didn't see their refunds until August from that whole mess. I have heard they "fixed" the problem but we sent ours off beginning of Janurary and it's not even showing up on the Where's My Refund yet. No letters from the IRS yet either.

 

[jana616]

Okay so I know several of us on here adopted in 2011. Have any of you heard anything on your taxes yet? Just curious if everybody taking the credit will automatically get audited like in 2010. I know people last year who didn't see their refunds until August from that whole mess. I have heard they "fixed" the problem but we sent ours off beginning of Janurary and it's not even showing up on the Where's My Refund yet. No letters from the IRS yet either.

I haven't sent ours off yet (I just finished them last week), so I don't know the answer to how quickly we'll see the refund. I was curious if you sent any receipts or anything in with yours? We adopted internationally, and while it asks us just to send the court decree or her Visa, we made up a spreadsheet with all of our expenses and are planning to send in copies of our receipts as well. The friends we know who had delays last year seemed to be due mostly to them requesting those things later and then having to send them off and wait again (or again and again), so I am hoping doing it the first time will help speed the process up. I'm also hopeful that since so many people last year were past adoptive families claiming the remainder of their credits for the last 4-5 years (those who had been receiving partial amounts each year before it was refundable), that was part of what it made so slow. And since theoretically they all took the credit last year, this year it should just be those of us who completed adoptions in 2011, which would be a much smaller number! (Fingers crossed that that thought is accurate, lol!)

I hope you hear something SOON!!! I about jumped out of my chair when my final number was in

 

[teacherlisa1978]

We adopted in 2011 but because our son is Korean we won't finalize his adoption until this spring. So no tax credit for us yet. Crossing our fingers for good news with the credit this time next year. Good luck!

 

[GAGirlInVA]

I have a friend STILL waiting for her 2010 tax refund. She got her 2011 back already. (What a mess!)

Our adoption from 2011 failed, so we have to wait until next year to claim our expenses.

I'm so excited for all the families that adopted this past year. Congratulations!

In 2009, we adopted our oldest son. Priceless memories and I can't imagine our lives without him!

 

[minerva78]

I haven't sent mine off yet, although once I make copies of everything I'm planning to mail it tomorrow, so I don't know about the timeline for everything. But I do know from the IRS not accepting the documentation of expenses from our 2009 adoption, I am making sure I send everything possible to them! I am hoping our 2011 adoption will go smoothly though, because my oldest daughter was our foster child and by the time we finally got to adopt her, her age and ethnicity classified her as being "special needs", which means there is a set amount of the credit and we don't submit any receipts. All I'm supposed to submt is the adoption decree and the adoption assistance paperwork, but I'm submitting everything DSS sent us, including our receipt of payment for court costs, and copies of her old and current birth certificate. I'm not taking any chances this time. I figure it's best to send in all of the possible information so the IRS has no reason to contact me. Because if they do, I don't have any more information I can give them!

I still plan on submitting a revised 2010 return for our other daughter's adoption we finalized in 2009, but it won't be for the full amount because I no longer have the receipt for the homestudy, and they wouldn't accept the adoption paperwork that listed these expenses that was signed by the social worker. I assume I needed the actual receipt. But at least I do have the receipts from the attorney, so we'll see what happens with that. I'm also hoping the process this year won't be as bad as what I've heard from last year.

 

[moonpie85]

I haven't sent ours off yet (I just finished them last week), so I don't know the answer to how quickly we'll see the refund. I was curious if you sent any receipts or anything in with yours? We adopted internationally, and while it asks us just to send the court decree or her Visa, we made up a spreadsheet with all of our expenses and are planning to send in copies of our receipts as well. The friends we know who had delays last year seemed to be due mostly to them requesting those things later and then having to send them off and wait again (or again and again), so I am hoping doing it the first time will help speed the process up. I'm also hopeful that since so many people last year were past adoptive families claiming the remainder of their credits for the last 4-5 years (those who had been receiving partial amounts each year before it was refundable), that was part of what it made so slow. And since theoretically they all took the credit last year, this year it should just be those of us who completed adoptions in 2011, which would be a much smaller number! (Fingers crossed that that thought is accurate, lol!)

I hope you hear something SOON!!! I about jumped out of my chair when my final number was in

I sent in the decree and copies of all the cashier's checks. Ours wasn't too many seperate checks because we adopted locally so no travel expenses or anything.

I hope your theory is right!!!

 

[moonpie85]

We adopted in 2011 but because our son is Korean we won't finalize his adoption until this spring. So no tax credit for us yet. Crossing our fingers for good news with the credit this time next year. Good luck!

That has to be frustrating to have to wait another year. Congrats on the new addition though!

 

[moonpie85]

I have a friend STILL waiting for her 2010 tax refund. She got her 2011 back already. (What a mess!)

Our adoption from 2011 failed, so we have to wait until next year to claim our expenses.

I'm so excited for all the families that adopted this past year. Congratulations!

In 2009, we adopted our oldest son. Priceless memories and I can't imagine our lives without him!

Sorry about your failed adoption

 

[moonpie85]

I haven't sent mine off yet, although once I make copies of everything I'm planning to mail it tomorrow, so I don't know about the timeline for everything. But I do know from the IRS not accepting the documentation of expenses from our 2009 adoption, I am making sure I send everything possible to them! I am hoping our 2011 adoption will go smoothly though, because my oldest daughter was our foster child and by the time we finally got to adopt her, her age and ethnicity classified her as being "special needs", which means there is a set amount of the credit and we don't submit any receipts. All I'm supposed to submt is the adoption decree and the adoption assistance paperwork, but I'm submitting everything DSS sent us, including our receipt of payment for court costs, and copies of her old and current birth certificate. I'm not taking any chances this time. I figure it's best to send in all of the possible information so the IRS has no reason to contact me. Because if they do, I don't have any more information I can give them!

I still plan on submitting a revised 2010 return for our other daughter's adoption we finalized in 2009, but it won't be for the full amount because I no longer have the receipt for the homestudy, and they wouldn't accept the adoption paperwork that listed these expenses that was signed by the social worker. I assume I needed the actual receipt. But at least I do have the receipts from the attorney, so we'll see what happens with that. I'm also hoping the process this year won't be as bad as what I've heard from last year.

That's scary, I'm really hoping they accept my cashier checks. We used two attorneys and one didn't even give us a receipt or contract. So all I have are the cashier's checks. I've been worried about that. But all I'm asking reimbursement on is the attorneys so maybe they won't be very hard on us. Our homestudy and all of that was done in 2008 and I didn't bother keeping all of those documents so didn't claim.

As far as your special needs child yes all you're supposed to need is the letter from the state and the decree. I've heard those are the easiest.

 

[moonpie85]

Okay so I have an update although it's nothing great. They have finally acknowledged receiving the return on their "Where's My Refund" site after 6 weeks. It says we should receive the refund by March 27th "unless there is a processing delay." But I'm sure there will be!

So best case scenerio it will have taken 3 months from the time we mailed off. I can live with that. Hoping it goes through