Adoption and IP PIN

[PhoenixDad]

My husband and I (while single at the time) adopted our son which was finalized in July of 2012. He was born Dec of 2011 and we took him home from the hospital. Transfer of custody was completed the following week. Full Adoption was final in 2012, court docs on file.  We filed our taxes for 2012 and applied for the Adoption Tax Credit, which we received. We had the SSN, and the birth certificate has both our names on it (one of the first in MO to be two males I believe)  At that time no court documents were needed when we filed taxes.
When I filed this year they had a spot for their IP pin.  When I called and answered all the questions to verify myself and my child I’ve had for 14 years, I was told that neither of us are listed as custodial parents and the IRS could not provide me with any information.  We have claimed him on our taxes every year. When we answered the qualifying dependent questions we were told yes he’s our child, not to mark adopted.  So why are we not the custodial and what do we do to become them and not the ones who are currently listed bc they never actually saw or provided any care? (They did have 2 days where they had to give us permission to visit in the nursery and disclose medical information, but my insurance kicked in at birth).  I was told to fill out form 54 but that’s Fiduciary Not Custodial.  We have a signed document stating they gave up their custodial rights, and we were granted custody. But that was by the state.  I don’t believe form 8332 was a thing in 2012. 

[AnnetteB6]

Based on the information you shared, I believe that you tried to get an IP PIN for your adopted son.  However, you were unsuccessful due to there being information in the IRS system contradicting his custodial parents.  But, you and your spouse are his parents and there is not a custodial issue in question.  

Filing Form 8332 is not the action to take to get the situation corrected because it is meant to be used when parents are not claiming a dependent on a joint tax return but they share custody of their child.

Your best course of action may be to provide the IRS with a copy of the adoption papers for your son so that the information in the IRS system can be updated.  The recommendation is that you contact the IRS Taxpayer Advocate for assistance.  You can explain the situation and how the discrepancy was discovered and they will be able to advise you and help to get it fixed.  You should ask about getting assistance with an 'IRS System Issue'.

Use the following links to get started with contacting the Taxpayer Advocate and to learn more:

Contact TAS

Taxpayer Advocate Service

[PhoenixDad]

I contacted them. They said to fill out the fiduciary responsibility form which doesn’t make sense to me. I’d take responsibility for paying not still not listed as custodial.