Taxes. Oh my. Taxes. Did you know that it's tax season? Probably so.
Back in the day (you know before I became an "all knowing adult") I didn't know that there were options with taxes. You see my parents owned their own business and chose to not pay taxes until April. They always complained about the ridiculous amount of money they had to come up with and I just thought that was the way it worked. In actuality, you can opt to have taxes taken out of your paycheck every month (or paycheck). Sometimes the company you work for pays too much for you so when this time comes around you file and actually get PAID money back. Sure its money you already had but I just like that idea so much more than having to come up with a buttload of money out of pocket.
Anywhoozers, we have started filing for this year. All throughout our adoption we kept hearing about the Adoption Tax Credit, and before we brought Ellie home it was made a permanent return!! This is great news. It is so helpful to families who are adopting to know that they have the opportunity to get some of the money back that they have paid out for their child.
But here is the "Poopy" part. They made the Adoption Tax Credit a return instead of a refund. This means that we will only get a portion of what we qualified for this year due to our tax liability and then get the rest when we file next year. So if we were in a higher tax bracket (meaning if we made more) we would get the whole return this year.
♥ Ashley
If it were a ReFund we would get the total amount back that we qualified for THIS year. Which would be ideal so we could start the process again to adopt a brother for Ellie. But alas it's going to take a little longer since we are going to have to wait until next year to get the rest of our return. So you can bet your bottom dollar I am contacting our state representative about this. You can too his name is Denny Hick.
In addition to that whole disappointing mess we realized that in order to claim Ellie as a dependent we need her SS#. We also need that nifty number for the Adoption Credit too. You guessed it. We totally dropped the ball and never applied for one. So we got on that done on Tuesday and now have to wait another 2 weeks until we get her card and number in the mail before we can finalize and file our taxes. Meaning we have to wait at least two more weeks before we get our return.
So what have I learned through all this? Apply for your babies SS# ASAP (like when they come out of your body) and please help us and other adoptive families fight for the Adoption Tax Credit to become a permanent refund!!! You can contact your state representative to get them on board.
Thanks all and I hope you learn from our blunder!!
♥ Ashley
That's absolutely insane.. sometimes I don't get people/government, etc at all. Why do we have to jump through hoops and why does everything have to be so difficult. I worked for H&R Block seasonally as well as I worked for an Accountant that owned his own firm. After awhile, I knew that I wanted no part in it-- not only do I stink at numbers but the BS you have to deal with via IRS is just insane.
ReplyDeleteIt's so insane. My husband's a CPA and I don't get how he likes doing taxes. I'll do my part and send a letter to the representative.
ReplyDeleteThis all sounds SO complicated, I'm glad we don't have the same process over here! Tax is deducted from our salary before we get paid... and if you never had it, you don't miss it!
ReplyDeleteYep. Jim has been reading up all on that. His dad is an accountant and has helped explain it some, but yeah, it's a giant mess.
ReplyDeleteTax stuff is all so crazy! I will def pass this on! Hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteIt is great that most companies do their employee’s income taxes for them. It comes as quite a relief for them, since it's one less thing to worry about. Anyway, I’m sorry to hear that you had to go through this unfortunate encounter about your Adoption tax credit, I can only imagine how frustrating it was to receive only a portion of what you were qualified for that year. I hope things are doing a lot better for you now. Thanks for sharing this with us, Ashley. Take care!
ReplyDeleteWanda Hanson @ Tax Tiger