A big change was made to the adoption tax credit in 2010, making it now refundable. In the past it was non-refundable, meaning if the adoptive family didn’t owe any taxes, they didn’t benefit from the remaining balance of the adoption tax credit. With the revised adoption tax credit, adoptive families who owe no taxes will now get a tax refund from the government.
For adoptive families, this can be a very welcome relief to some of the financial burden that adopting a child may place on their pocketbooks. CreatingAFamily.org has many informative articles and even a podcast about everything an adoptive family would ever need to know about the adoption tax credit.