February 09, 2007
Can we claim our child on our taxes before finalization?
Posted At: 03:30:50 PM | Posted By: AdminMegan, we have not finalized our adoption yet, but want to claim our baby girl on our taxes. With tax day around the corner, we wanted to know how we can go about filing our taxes when we don't have a social security number for the baby yet.
This is a very popular question this time of year! We typically don't have a social security number until after finalization has occurred. The attorney who is finalizing your adoption is actually the one that applies for a social security number along w/ the final amended birth certificate and this will not be done until after the finalization court hearing has occurred. Since you do not have these items yet, you or your accountant/ tax representative can apply for a temporary tax identification number for the baby and you can file your taxes with that number. Here is a link for this information about obtaining a temporary tax ID #: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7a.pdf
I am also including the following link to the tax credit form that is also very helpful when preparing your taxes. The link is: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8839.pdf. Best of luck with this process!
***I'm also including a reminder to all families who are currently active and waiting for placement to send the front page of your federal tax return to us after completion because we always need the most current copy of these on file.
