Adoption Credit for adoption still in progress

[erod550]

I started adoption proceedings in 2019. I have fees that I paid in 2019 as well as 2020. We have not yet successfully found a child to adopt and are still in progress on that front. The fees I paid in 2019 should be eligible to claim on my 2020 taxes but TurboTax tells me I am not eligible for the Adoption Credit unless I fill in a name and birth year for the child, which I do not have because we have not been placed with a child yet. The irs.gov help topic (https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607) states that "Qualified adoption expenses paid before the year the adoption becomes final are allowable as a credit for the tax year following the year of payment (even if the adoption is never finalized and even if an eligible child was never identified)." So I shouldn't have to have a child's name to file for the credit because they should qualify even if no child was ever identified.

[ReneeM7122]

You are correct, in order to claim the expenses for a failed adoption, one year must pass after the incur the expenses are incurred, even if the child was not yet found.  Since you have paid the expenses in 2019, you can claim them on your 2020 tax return.  

You do not need a name for the child.  Enter Unknown for the first and last name, and an [approximate] intended birth date.  The software will not require an ITIN/SSN.

Here is IRS Topic No. 607, Adoption Credit

Please keep in mind, the credit applies to a US adoption. 

[erikjc]

Hi @ReneeM7122, that doesn't seem correct to me. On the IRS instructions for Form 8839 (https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8839), it says to "Leave blank any entries you are unable to complete" for line 1. It doesn't make sense to put an approximate/intended birth year when we are trying to adopt a newborn, because the form only let's me put the current tax year or earlier, so we are in 2024 now and I would be putting 2023 for the intended birth year - it just doesn't make logical sense. I think the TurboTax form needs to be revised so that the birth year (as well as name and SSN) can be left blank. Could you please look into this? I need to claim my credit for expenses from 2022 but don’t feel comfortable putting incorrect info on the form. 

[MonikaK1]

You don't have to provide info that doesn't exist. See this thread for another discussion of the issue.

TurboTax developers have worked on this situation in the program.  You should be able to claim the adoption credit without being required to list a specific child's name and other information on the form in the case of a failed adoption attempt.  This matches the IRS instructions saying that those fields can be left blank if you do not have the information.  

There may still be a flag on the screen asking for missing information, but you can proceed with claiming the credit without entering the info being flagged. Click Continue a second time and the program will proceed.

From IRS Tax Topic 607:

A domestic adoption is the adoption of a U.S. child (an eligible child who is a citizen or resident of the U.S. or its territories before the adoption effort begins). Qualified adoption expenses paid before the year the adoption becomes final are allowable as a credit for the tax year following the year of payment (even if the adoption is never finalized and even if an eligible child was never identified).