EXCEL SPREADSHEET! If anyone still reads this blog at all and you have just begun your adoption journey, do yourself a big favor and put all your expenses onto a spreadsheet as you're going along. I've been going through ours (which has been stuffed in a FED EX tyvek envelope) to tally everything for our IRS tax return. Trust Momma Shelly on this one! I have spent this afternoon in adoption receipt hell.
Oh, and highly intelligent people will label all those Russian receipts while in-country. I can't tell what is a souvenir and what is cereal. Should the IRS need to see our actual documents, they'll just have to trust me or find Vladimir to translate.
A soft re-entry
7 years ago
Ahhh tax season. You know you just need receipts to equal over the tax credit amount. The one receipt we got from our agency was about 21K so that's all we are submitting. I guess it gets a little tricky if you received grant money or employer assistance that you need to deduct from your grand total, but every single receipt isn't really necessary. Just a few can get you to the 13K! I'm ALL about doing as LITTLE paperwork as possible.
ReplyDeleteWe are just submitting the big ones. From the adoption agency, from the homestudy agency, etc. If they want every piece of paper they can have it, but I am like Trisha. As little work as possible.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that I do not have to deal with the adoption credit for this years taxes. Last year was a nightmare because I they held the money and I had to send them every reciept.
ReplyDeleteGood advice!
Joy
We did the same thing last year....only had 2 or 3 big receipts and that was all we submitted and had absolutely no issues at all with getting our refund back.
ReplyDeletegood info. we're talking about adoption (probably starting next year), and basic info like this is great! blessings to you, friend!
ReplyDeleteWhen we came home, I immediately sat down and did a spread sheet of everything in country. I then organized our receipts into folders in a huge flexible file. I then had all of our paperwork and agency fees in there and so when I did our taxes in 2009, I was able to thumb through and get everything I needed. Organization is key in this mad crazy world of bringing our babies home!!!
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