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DeLeith Duke Gossett, assistant professor of legal practice at Texas Tech University School of Law, spoke at the law school on Oct. 24, 2012, as part of the faculty speaker series.
Gossett presented her paper, “If Charity Begins at Home, Why Do We Go Searching Abroad? A Call to Sunset the Portion of the Federal Adoption Tax Credit that Subsidizes International Adoptions,” as part of Texas Wesleyan’s Faculty Speaker Series. Her paper is forthcoming in the Lewis & Clark Law Review. Thirty faculty and staff members attended the event, which was held in the Bernie Schuchmann Conference Center.
In introducing her paper, Gossett noted that the Adoption Promotion and Stability Act of 1996 provided a tax credit for the adoption of children in U.S foster care and that the 2012 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expanded, extended and enhanced the 1996 act.
According to Gossett, recent years have seen an increase in international adoptions. “$1.2 million in tax credit was claimed last year, mostly for international adoptions,” Gossett continued. “Not exactly what the tax credit was intended for.
“Children from other countries are now being imported to form the new American families, and those who adopt internationally are receiving the same tax benefits as those who adopt domestically,” Gossett said. “The very ones who were the intended beneficiaries of the legislation – those ‘lost in the system’ – remain there, and are not being helped as the statute originally intended.” She argues that using taxpayer dollars to fund international adoptions adds to taxpayers’ burden.
“This December, the federal tax credit for private domestic and international adoptions will sunset unless proposed legislation passes or unless the credit is extended as part of a larger legislative measure,” Gossett observed. She went on to say, “Only the tax credit for special needs adoptions, or those from foster care, which is already a permanent part of the tax code, will remain.”
In conclusion, Gossett noted that those portions of the tax credit intended for private domestic and international adoptions should be allowed to sunset. “The tax credit should be restricted to aiding those who adopt from the foster care system,” she said.
“Just as Americans choose to have a biological child or not, American citizens should be allowed to adopt internationally if they so choose – just not at taxpayer expense,” Gossett concluded. “The federal adoption tax credit should not be used to subsidize a personal choice that does nothing to help the plight of those for whom the statute was originally intended to aid, but have since been all but forgotten.”