The federal adoption tax credit was made refundable for the first time! This means all families who finalize their adoptions can claim this tax credit even if they owe no taxes at all.  The credit per child in now $13,170 for adoptions finalized in 2010.

Now that the credit is refundable even families who adopted eariler than 2010 but didn’t have enough tax liability to access the credit in those previous years can get this refund too.  Families that finalized their adoptions between 2005-2009 can carry forward unused tax credits to their 2010 return and claim it as a refundable credit.  

 * Visit the IRS (Form 8839): http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8839/ch02.html   (This might currently link to the 2009 forms but the IRS will update the forms to 2010 later this year)

 * Visit the North American Council on Adoptable Children’s website page concerning this adoption tax credit:  http://www.nacac.org/postadopt/taxcredit.html