Help Make the Federal Adoption Credit Permanent by Writing to Your Legislator

Please help save the current adoption tax credit. Adoption can be expensive with the cost ranging between $15,000 - $40,000. These fees cover professional adoption agency and legal fees to coordinate all the background checks, home study and paper work necessary in the adoption process. It also covers medical expenses for the birth mother. Luckily, the federal government currently offers adopting families a $12,000 tax credit to help them offset the cost. However, this tax credit will sunset in December 2010 if it is not saved. Currently, there are bills in the house (H.R. 213) and senate (S.2816) that have been proposed to help save the tax credit.

If you have adopted, think you may look into adoption in the future or have friends or family who have or are trying to adopt, please write your representative and senators and ask them to co-sponsor and/or vote in favor of these bills. We recommend:

• Calling your legislator's office - this is the quickest and most effective method. To find their office phone number visit our How to find your representative/senators section.
• E-mail your legislator. To find their e-mail, just do a Google search of their name and the word "e-mail."
• You can also write your Representative an e-mail at: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml.
• You can write your Senator an e-mail at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
  
• Deal with taxation affairs at contractors taxsite. http://www.contractors-tax.co.uk

We recommend against sending a letter because snail mail gets very delayed because it must be examined for anthrax. Legislators won't receive the letter until weeks after you've sent it to them.
*ALERT* The number of bill co-sponsors is increasing. However, we're not out of the woods yet. Most bills, even if they have several co-sponsors, don't make it out of committee to be voted on. If that happens on H.R. 213 and S.2816, the bills will die and the adoption tax credit will still sunset. To get the bills out of committee, please call or e-mail the committee members overseeing S.2816 (click here for a list) and H.R. 213 (click here for a list) and ask them to move the bill out of committee, so it can be put to a vote. If you live in there district, be sure to mention it in your e-mail/phone call. *ALERT*

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