About six years ago the United States Congress created the adoption tax credit. It originally was $5,000 but they was raised to $10,000. Many adoptive families (including me) have taken advantage of this credit to help fund their adoption.

The credit is awesome. It isn't a deduction where you reduce your taxable income. If you paid $12,000 in federal taxes, you get $10,000 back after your Kazakhstan adoption is final.

The adoption tax credit will expire in 2010. But there is a solution to this problem.

Representative Joe Wilson is from North Carolina. He is also an adoptive dad. He created bill 471 which makes this credit permanent. The bill has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill is just sitting there. It still hasn't been scheduled for a committee hearing. So Representative Wilson sent a letter to the committee's chairman on May 21 asking for the hearing.

An interesting side note is that the chairman (Rep Charles Rangel) is a cosponsor for bill 471.

Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky introduced a similar bill. It is senate bill 561.

S.561 seems to have the same problem as HR.471. It is stuck in the Senate's Finance Committee.

Wouldn't it be nice to have an adoption tax credit in 2011? Wouldn't it be nice to fix the issue now, rather then wait until the last moment in 2010?

Please help keep these bills alive. Contact your Senator or Representative. Contact the Committees and ask for these bills to be heard.

If your Senator or Representative is on either of these committees it is especially important for you to contact them.

United States Senate Committee on Finance

Committee On Finance
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6200
(202) 224-4515

Committee Members
Arkansas - BLANCHE L. LINCOLN
Arizona - JON KYL
Colorado - KEN SALAZAR
Iowa - CHARLES GRASSLEY
Idaho - MIKE CRAPO
Kansas - PAT ROBERTS
Kentucky - JIM BUNNING
Massachusetts - JOHN F. KERRY
Maine - OLYMPIA J. SNOWE
Michigan - DEBBIE STABENOW
Mississippi - TRENT LOTT
Montana - MAX BAUCUS
North Dakota - KENT CONRAD
New Mexico - JEFF BINGAMAN
New York - CHARLES E. SCHUMER
Oregon - GORDON SMITH, RON WYDEN
Utah - ORRIN G. HATCH
Washington - MARIA CANTWELL
West Virginia - JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV
Wyoming - CRAIG THOMAS

United States House Committee on Ways and Means

Committee on Ways & Means
U.S. House of Representatives
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515

Phone: (202) 225-3625
Fax: (202) 225-2610
Web Site: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/contact.asp

Committee Members
Alabama - Artur Davis
California - Devin Nunes, Pete Stark, Mike Thompson, Wally Herger, Xavier Becerra
Connecticut - John B. Larson
Florida - Kendrick B. Meek
Georgia - John Lewis, John Linder
Illinois - Jerry Weller, Rahm Emanuel
Kentucky - Ron Lewis
Louisiana - Jim McCrery
Maryland - Chris Van Hollen
Massachusetts - Richard E. Neal
Michigan - Dave Camp, Sander M. Levin
Minnesota - Jim Ramstad
Missouri - Kenny C. Hulshof
Nevada - Jon Porter, Shelley Berkley
New Jersey - Bill Pascrell Jr.
New York - Charles B. Rangel, Joseph Crowley, Michael R. McNulty, Thomas M. Reynolds
North Dakota - Earl Pomeroy
Ohio - Pat Tiberi, Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Oregon - Earl Blumenauer
Pennsylvania - Allyson Y. Schwartz, Phil English
Tennessee - John S. Tanner
Texas - Kevin Brady, Lloyd Doggett, Sam Johnson
Virginia - Eric Cantor
Washington - Jim McDermott
Wisconsin - Paul Ryan, Ron Kind