Adoption Tax Credit Calculator (2026)
The 2025 tax law changed the adoption credit in a way most pages get wrong: part of it is now refundable — paid to you even if you owe no tax. For 2026 the credit is your qualified adoption expenses up to $17,670 per child, phased out between $265,080 and $305,080 of income, and up to $5,120 of it per child is refundable. That refundable slice is per child, not per return, so two children can bring more than $5,120 back as a refund. Enter your expenses to see the refundable amount, the nonrefundable amount, and any 5-year carryforward. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
For general information only — not tax, legal, or financial advice. Figures are for the tax year you select (2026 default). The 2026 Form 8839 isn't published yet, so line references are from the 2025 form and may move. Confirm your numbers with IRS Form 8839 and its instructions and a tax professional before filing.
The myth-bust: the refundable part is per child, and it isn't a fixed number
What many pages say: "$5,120 is refundable and $12,550 is nonrefundable."
What's actually true: that split only holds when the full $17,670 is allowed. The refundable amount is the smaller of your allowed credit or $5,120, figured per child (Form 8839 line 11b, one column per child). If your expenses are $4,000, the whole $4,000 is refundable — and you get it even with $0 tax liability. If you adopt two children, the cap is $5,120 each, so up to $10,240 can come back on one return. And this is refundable for the first time since 2011, and permanently for the first time: the credit was fully refundable only for 2010–2011 under the Affordable Care Act, then reverted to nonrefundable through 2024. It is not "refundable for the first time ever." The 2025 law (OBBBA §70402) added new §23(a)(4), which recharacterizes the first dollars of each year's allowed credit as refundable.
How the 2026 adoption credit works, step by step
- Qualified expenses, capped per child. Reasonable and necessary adoption fees, court costs, attorney fees, and travel — up to $17,670 per child in 2026. This cap is cumulative across all years for the same child, so prior-year claims reduce what's left. Expenses above the cap can never be claimed.
- MAGI phase-out. The credit is reduced once your modified AGI is above $265,080, and disappears at $305,080 (a fixed $40,000 range). MAGI exactly at $265,080 is not "in excess of" it, so there's no reduction yet.
- Refundable split — per child. The first dollars of each child's allowed credit, up to $5,120, are refundable (paid regardless of tax owed). The rest is nonrefundable.
- Nonrefundable part meets your tax. The nonrefundable remainder can only offset your income tax this year.
- Carryforward. Whatever nonrefundable credit your tax can't absorb carries forward up to 5 years, oldest first. The refundable part never carries — it's already paid.
| Parameter (per child) | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum credit / expense cap | $17,280 | $17,670 |
| Refundable portion cap (per child) | $5,000 | $5,120 |
| MAGI phase-out starts above | $259,190 | $265,080 |
| Fully phased out at | $299,190 | $305,080 |
| §137 employer exclusion cap | $17,280 | $17,670 |
Special-needs adoptions: the full credit with no expenses
If your adopted child is determined to have special needs, the year the adoption becomes final you are treated as having paid qualified adoption expenses equal to the full $17,670 cap — even if your actual out-of-pocket expenses were less, or zero (§23(a)(3)). Check the special-needs box in the calculator and it will use the full cap regardless of what you enter. A child is "special needs" only if a State or an Indian tribal government determines the child cannot or should not return to the birth parents' home and can't be placed without assistance. The Indian-tribal-government path is new under the 2025 law (OBBBA §70403). Special needs here is a tax-law term and is not the same as a disability.
Employer adoption assistance (§137): the two caps are separate — but no double-dip
Many employers offer a written adoption-assistance program under IRC §137. Money your employer pays toward qualified adoption expenses is excluded from your wages, up to the same $17,670 per-child cap in 2026, with the same income phase-out. The key coordination rule: you can't claim both the credit and the exclusion for the same dollar of expenses — employer-reimbursed expenses aren't qualified expenses for the credit. But the two $17,670 caps are separate, so a family whose total expenses exceed one cap can use both: the exclusion on the reimbursed part and the credit on the rest. (Example: $20,000 of expenses with $17,670 reimbursed by the employer leaves $2,330 of credit-eligible expenses, and the whole $2,330 credit can still be refundable.) One wrinkle: §137's income test adds the excluded benefits back, so its MAGI can differ from the credit's.
What this tool deliberately doesn't do
- Timing of when expenses are claimable. Expenses paid before a domestic adoption is final are claimed the following year; foreign-adoption expenses wait until the adoption is final. Enter only the expenses claimable in the tax year you selected.
- It doesn't recompute your other credits. The "tax before this credit" input is a simplification of the IRS Credit Limit Worksheet — enter your income tax after your other nonrefundable credits.
- Excluded expenses. Surrogacy costs, adopting your spouse's child, and any expense reimbursed by a government program don't qualify — leave them out.
- Not an eligibility determination. Eligible-child, finality, and residency rules have more parts than this arithmetic covers.
Sources: 26 U.S.C. §23 (adoption credit) and §137 (employer exclusion), as amended by P.L. 119-21 (OBBBA) §§70402–70403 — new §23(a)(4) refundable recharacterization, §23(c)(1) carryforward on the nonrefundable portion only, and "or Indian tribal government" added to §23(d)(3); Rev. Proc. 2025-32 §§4.04, 4.18 (2026 figures: $17,670 cap, $5,120 refundable, $265,080–$305,080 phase-out); 2025 Form 8839 and its instructions (per-child line 11b refundable amount; special-needs deeming; 5-year carryforward). 2010–2011 full-refundability history: ACA (P.L. 111-148) §10909. See also the tax glossary.