This Week’s Moment: Please Don’t Watch this Sunset
Please read this post until the end to get a gold star.
Generally, I stay away from politics. I don’t think that I’ve ever written an overtly political blog post, except the one time I went off on the United States healthcare system in the midst of my personal health care crisis but that was more of a rant than a call to action.
This week’s teachable moment is a cry for help because it’s about the projected ‘sunset’ of the federal adoption tax credit.
I know it sounds like an incredibly boring topic because anything with the word ‘tax’ in it is generally an invitation to start a snooze fest—at least for me– but if I haven’t lost you yet, I beg you to read on just a little bit further. I promise to keep this short.
The Federal Adoption Tax credit is $12,150 but the tax credit is set to sunset in December 2010 unless Congress votes to continue it.
The reason why this concerns me is because adopting an infant can cost up to $30,000 (Yikes! )I mean, hopefully it won’t but I never thought I was spend as much as I did on fertility treatments, but I digress… This tax credit would give Nadia and I some relief and, hopefully, we will adopt by the end of the year and will be set.
But what if we don’t?
Given the small fortune that we spent on fertility treatments over the past three years, the idea that we could get some relief during the next leg of our journey has really kept me going. And then on the other hand, even if we do adopt and we get the tax credit what about all the men and women out there who are still in TTC hell and decide next year that they want to adopt. What then? Or what about the people who don’t even bother with the TTC and just decide next year that they really, really want to adopt? What about those people? Huh?
I mean, I hope that the Federal Government will realize that helping kids find permanent homes is a good thing and that they will automatically extend the tax credit. I wish I could say that this is a no brainer and that I don’t have anything to worry about but given the fact that the folks in Washington (no matter how much I may love some of them) can’t seem to get anything right this days, I don’t have a lot of faith.
I know this may sound a little cliche but it only takes a few minutes to write, call, or email your representatives. Please consider it.
Email Representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Email Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
And please, don’t take more word for it. If you want more info, please click here.
Okay, here’s your gold start. You made it to the end. You deserve it. xo
Taxes are not my favorite topic, but I see the importance of this.
1Thank you so much for telling me about this. Am writing my representatives & posting on facebook right now.
2There is such a need to support adoption. Many older children linger in the system and need adoptive homes. Certainly the tax credit should not be a reason they do it but it is a way for government to support families that decide to do it. It can make a big difference.
3If I lived in the US I would be all over this. If I lived in the US I would have chosen adoption over ttc! Alas we live in a country where not only are we not allowed to adopt anyway…but adoption is a very rare thing. Best of luck on your journey!
4Reading your blog brought home to me that I know relatively little about the details of adoption, compared to the TTC world. We turn ourselves into experts on everything we have to know in order to create the families we want so much. Having to go from zero to 100 on a subject that is so incredibly complex is one more cause of stress.
The up -side of it is that once the knowledge is there, we can use it to help others who are trying to make it somewhere behind us. Thanks for making it so clear that its not plain sailing once you shake off the TTC shackles and decide/agree to adopt. It’s a serious matter that requires thought, flexibility, tolerance, sensitivity and sheer determination.
“I mean, I hope that the Federal Government will realize that helping kids find permanent homes is a good thing and that they will automatically extend the tax credit.”
I hope so too.
5Thanks. I’ve been wondering about that. I’m pretty quick to email/call my representative on other issues. I’d been worrying about this, but hadn’t done anything. Thank you for the swift kick to the behind! Emailed and called.
6