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Not every quest is deductible

October 21, 2009

A reader adopted as a child asks TaxGrrrl whether she can deduct expenses of finding her birth mother. TaxGrrrl answers:

Unfortunately, no, the expenses associated with your search are not deductible. You can only deducted attorney’s fees as an individual in limited circumstances which include certain tax advice; defending a lawsuit that was filed against you on a work-related issue; or for your business. As a side note, you can only take that deduction as a miscellaneous 2% deduction on your Schedule A.

You may think that it’s deductible because fees (including attorney’s fees) related to an adoption may be taken as a credit on your tax return. However, those expenses relate to fees incurred while adopting or trying to adopt a child, not for an adopted child trying to locate a birth parent.

It is not a train, or a plane, or a snort, or a dog, or a deduction, or a credit.