topic Is it possible the calculation for adoption credit is broken? It says the max amount is 5k but my estimate went up much more. in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Is it possible the calculation for adoption credit is broken? It says the max amount is 5k but my estimate went up much more.

joshkeck13 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:10:02 GMT

My estimated federal refund jumped up roughly 12k, when I was expecting 5k maximum for the adoption credit.

Re: Is it possible the calculation for adoption credit is broken? It says the max amount is 5k bu...

AmyC — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 23:43:30 GMT

The new $5k rule is to get a refundable portion after your tax liability is wiped out. You may have had a larger tax liability that was reduced so that you refund is higher.

Follow these steps:

Take a look at your form 8839 and verify the numbers.
Take a look at sch 3 line 6c for adoption credit.
Take a look at your 1040. Look at the tax on line 16.
Now, look at line 20 for the credit from sch 3 to pull over.
Any adoption credit left after wiping out your tax liability, moved down the 1040 to line 30 for a maximum of $5,000.

Re: Is it possible the calculation for adoption credit is broken? It says the max amount is 5k but my estimate went up much more.

AmeliesUncle — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 01:48:48 GMT

If you look at line 2 of the Adoption Credit form (Form 8839), you'll see that the POTENTIAL maximum adoption credit is much, much higher than $5,000.