Claiming Your Adoptive Child as a Dependent

Adoptive Parents frequently face the conundrum of how to claim their baby as a dependent on their tax returns when they have not yet legally finalized the adoption. Furthering complicating the issue is that the IRS Form 1040 requests the child’s Social Security number and most adoptees do not obtain a Social Security number until after the adoption is finalized and they receive an amended birth certificate.

Adoptive Parents, adopting domestically, may claim their adoptive child as a dependent as long as the child was placed in their care by a licensed agency or through proper procedures in a private adoption. Only one family may claim the child as a dependent. This is rarely a conflict with a newborn, who has only ever lived with his adoptive parents. However, if you are adopting a child from the foster system and your child lived with his birth parents at one point, you may run into an issue if the biological parents are claiming the child. The IRS will normally allow the adoptive parents to name the child as a dependent if he has lived for most of the year with the adoptive family. If you are adopting internationally, you may claim the child as your dependent so long as the child has a Permanent Resident Alien Card, or a Certificate of US Citizenship and be lawfully placed in your custody.

So how do you identify or list your adoptive infant/child on the tax forms when she does not yet have a Social Security number? You must request from the IRS an Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number, called the ATIN. Request the Form 7-WA (Application for Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending Adoptions) by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-3676, or take a look at this site. The ATIN number is used in place of the Social Security number and will remain valid for two years. Most adoptions are finalized within approximately one year from birth, so you should have time to press forward with obtaining a Social Security number for your child before the expiration of the ATIN. If necessary, you may extend the ATIN. For more information on obtaining a Social Security number for your adoptive child see our previous post here.