About a month ago I (along with everyone else) received my tax refund from the government; woohoo! It’s always wonderful to have some extra cash returned to your pockets, but obviously the amount of your income determines how much you get back. While my refund was nice, it comes nowhere close to the biggest IRS refund in history. Last year, North Carolina residents Thelma and David Ward were informed from the IRS that they would be receiving a $54,000 tax rebate; the largest in history.
After some dancing around the room, the couple discovered that the rebate was a reward of their kind hearts for adopting five children from the North Carolina area. The IRS allows adoptive parents to claim $13,170 per child that they have adopted to account for living expenses. While the family had been trying to claim this money for awhile beforehand, their income was never high enough to receive the refund; however, all this did was continue to build up over the years waiting to be claimed.
Nobody would believe it upon first glance, there had to be a mistake right? Wrong. Even after checking with multiple co-workers, tax creditor Dee Carter thought there was an error or mix up. The H&R Block office ran through the numbers 15 different times until they finally confirmed that this was no hoax. While the credit has been available to the couple for over ten years, as mentioned before they were not financially eligible until 2013, so the amount came at one time in this huge amount.
Having children (of your own or through adoption) is never an easy task, especially when managing money, so it’s great to see good deeds go rewarded and the family get this return after working so hard to give these kids a life. Tax refunds are always nice to get back, but if you’ve adopted any kids, definitely look into this benefit because while it may not get you $54,000, it could still put a pretty penny in your pocket and really help out.
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