A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation in the House that would make the current adoption tax credit fully refundable.
The group backing the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act of 2015 includes Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., Danny K. Davis, D-Ill. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Trent Franks, R-Ariz.
“This May marks National Foster Care Month and is a sobering reminder of the more than 400,000 children in the foster care system waiting on a forever family,” Black said in a statement Tuesday. “The best outcome for a child in foster care is an adoption into a safe, loving home, but we know this is a costly process. Almost half of all children adopted from foster care live in households with incomes at or below 200 percent of the poverty threshold. The tax code should work for these families that open their hearts and their homes to adoption—not against them.”
McDermott pointed out that many of the children adopted in the U.S. join families who do not earn enough income to take full advantage of the adoption tax credit. “Making the adoption tax credit refundable will ensure that the tax code provides every family that adopts a child the resources they need and deserve,” he said.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., introduced a bipartisan Senate companion measure in the Senate.
