IRS: Adoption Evil, Abortion Good.

Scandal. It’s not just a sleazy TV show. It’s real life. And, lately, it’s spreading like wildfire.

Every year my wife, Bethany, and I dread filing our taxes. We’re diligent and organized, but worry about missing some minute detail that would trigger the harrowing experience of an audit. I’ve been through one before because I own a small business. In the end, the IRS paid me thousands more in that year’s refund.

Middle class families have been hit hard with a crumbling economy, so getting any tax break we can relieves some of the fiscal pain, especially for adoptive families. The Adoption Tax Credit enables parents to recoup some of the out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the adoption process. The $13,360 refundable tax credit for 2011 was a welcome offset. (Depending on the type of adoption, that refund would only be a fraction of the actual cost—a cost that is well worth it.) It was the most the federal government has offered since 2006, and only 2010 and 2011 were refundable. In all other years, including this most recent year, the Adoption Tax Credit was non-refundable. This means it will only offset any amount that you may owe in federal taxes, but adoptive families will not see any of that amount refunded in cash.

It’s amazing—strike that—tragic that in a government that can shell out billions of our tax dollars to fund an industry that kills for a living (aka Planned Parenthood), there’s very little offered to families who open their homes and their hearts to children through adoption. So when a promised federal tax break is provided, it’s infuriating to find out we were among many others whose tax returns were discriminated against and targeted for audits. Of all families, like ours, that filed for this tax credit, 90% were “flagged” for more review. A whopping 69% of all returns claiming the Adoption Tax Credit were audited by the IRS, according to the IRS’ own National Taxpayer Advocate Report. Ultimately, only 1.5% of all dollars claimed by adoptive families were denied.

We thought it was strange that, after filing, we received a letter requesting the very documentation that we painstakingly included in our initial mailing to the IRS. They asked for adoption documentation that we only had a few precious copies of and insisted the agency hadn’t received any of it. Then, they arbitrarily eliminated expenses (meticulously detailed) wrongly claiming they were not adoption-related. In the end, we were more concerned about getting the refund we were owed than endure any further examination and delay. So, we allowed them the unjustified eliminations.

The Radiance Foundation celebrates adoption.

(I wonder how many people filing for a tax deduction for their abortion were audited. Yes, abortion is tax-deductible.)

These latest IRS scandal revelations begin to reveal the true disgrace this federal agency has become. Adoptive parents do all they can to affirm the beauty of life of those wrongly labeled “unwanted” and get hassled for applying for a credit legally available. Yet the nation’s largest abortion chain, a 501(c)(3), has managed to elude any IRS scrutiny despite grossly violating the exemption requirements for such entities. As a reminder, a 501(c)(3) organization, according to the IRS, “may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.” Read the majority of Planned Parenthood’s press releases. Just read the URL. It says it all. They advocate for specific legislation all the time. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (and I’m not referring to its designated political action group, Planned Parenthood Action Fund), is a taxpayer-funded (Democrat) political machine.

On October 19^th of 2012, Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, “took a break” from her “day job” (one that paid her a whopping $583,323 from July 2011 through June 2012) to campaign full-time for Obama. Did she take a $28,766.61 pay cut for her 18 days of electioneering? Did the IRS scrutinize the 501(c)(3) corporate welfare giant over this?

Of course not. So why aren’t pundits asking why Planned Parenthood hasn’t been audited? The answer is obvious and deeply politically oriented.

This administration is showing through every overlapping emerging issue that it is inept and corrupt. How about less “transparency” and more integrity? We wouldn’t need all of the empty rhetoric and endless shows of transparent distractions if we had government leaders who upheld the law instead of their agendas.

May is National Foster Care Month. We need more families who will sacrifice convenience for compassion. Children awaiting adoption need families who are supported and encouraged by the government, not targeted with tax-related bias. This ever-expanding IRS scandal shows what the current administration values–an industry of death over families who embrace Life.