by Hope
Imagine my delight (sarcasm dripping) when I opened some recent mail from the IRS and discovered a bill for …wait for it…$18,000. Yikes!!!
I didn’t panic as I knew I have the adoption tax credit that can be used over 5 years and this past year was just year two since the adoption was finalized, but YIKES! That’s a scary feeling.
So I finally took the time to wait an hour on the phone yesterday morning to get to the bottom of the new bill. Evidently, because the twins’ name change did not happen until this year with the social security administration, the IRS does not believe they are real children.
I understand the confusion as I did put their new legal names with their existing socials on my return. So I’m not panicked and have a plan to resolve the matter.
They were kind enough to put a hold on my now “late bill” to give me time to resolve this. I’m sure many people have stories with the IRS. I’m glad mine was this straightforward.
Public Service Announcement: I shared this information on my Facebook page a while ago when we went to change the twins’ names. I had hoped to change their social security numbers at the same time due to some unauthorized activity on them right when they were placed with me. (I’ve since put a hold on their credit with all the major agencies.) So much to my chagrin, that was not an option. You cannot change an adopted child’s name unless ALL of the following are true: 1) they do not know they are adopted, 2) they do not know their social security numbers and 3) they have never worked with their social security numbers. Needless to say, changing their numbers was not an option for us so they will have to be super vigilant about maintaining their credit (as all should be these days I suppose.) But for anyone considering adoption, please be aware of this as I was not nor was the foster care agency here evidently since it was discussed at length with them upon placement when I started getting all sorts of bills, etc.
