DES MOINES, Iowa – Last Wednesday, an Iowa Senate subcommittee consisting of State Senators Roby Smith, R-Davenport, William Dotzler, D-Waterloo, and Tim Goodwin, R-Burlington, unanimously advanced HF 369, a bill that doubles the adoption tax credit in the state of Iowa over three years.
Iowa law currently caps the adoption tax credit that Iowans can claim against their income taxes at $5,000 per adoption for qualified adoption expenses. Under the legislation, the tax credit would increase to $7,500 in 2022 and increase to $10,000 in 2023.
The Iowa House passed the bill, 93 to 1, on February 10.
The subcommittee lasted just a few minutes with no one registering opposition to the bill.
Kim Laube with Lutheran Family Service said as an adoptive parent she believes Iowa is already an adoption-friendly state.
“This puts Iowa’s friendliness towards adoptive families in, I think, a number two spot in the nation with the addition of this potential tax credit,” she said.
Laube said at Lutheran Family Service, a private adoption will cost parents between $22,000-$25,000.
” And for areas of adoption, like international adoption, the fees just really go on up from there. We really have sort of what would probably be a bare minimum cost at Lutheran Family Service with our not-for-profit status and the ministry work that we do. So this is incredibly helpful for adoptive parents, and that makes it incredibly helpful for children,” she added.
Danny Carroll with The FAMiLY Leader spoke in favor of the bill.
“It’s always been a bit perplexing why adoption has to be so expensive. But I guess that’s just the way it is. And perhaps we have a lot of protections in place. Certainly, this will help families and help children and we encourage its passage,” he stated.
Dotzler at the start of the hearing said he was “very supportive of the bill,” and would sign the subcommittee report.
Goodwin concurred.
“Very much in support of it, my older brother and sister adopted, so anything we can do in the adoption world I’m in support of,” he said.
Smith expressed his support in closing out the subcommittee hearing.
“I can tell you in my 11 years, I’ve never had one constituent, one person come up to me and say that they’re against adoption. It’s something that I think all of us can agree that adoption is a good thing. And if we can make it more effective and more prevalent here in Iowa, that’s a good thing and make it cheaper,” he said. “Danny Carroll mentioned about how expensive is and we’re going to make that more cost-effective for families. I think that’s a good thing.”
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