Moolah Monday - Tax Update

I submitted my taxes several weeks ago but had to do so by mail because we were claiming the adoption tax credit and that required documentation that had to be produced physically.  We knew with that alone we'd have a longer wait time to see our refund and, furthermore, we expected to see a problem with claiming our foster kiddos.  

We got these cryptic letters last week that our refund was being held pending a verification of our income, deductions, and credits.  So, essentially our file was being reviewed in greater detail than the average filing.  That's ok - we expected that to some degree because they had to verify the veracity of the adoption paperwork.  They said it would take about 45 more days.

The next day we received about half of what we expected to receive back as a refund automatically deposited into our account.  This stumped us as we tried to determine how they decided to give us that amount back.

Last Monday we received another letter for them.  I knew what it was going to say - that our refund was being adjusted because our dependents were already claimed.

I was wrong.

It said that our refund was being adjusted because our dependent(s) were not valid.  More specifically, one of our dependent's submitted name did not match their records as provided by the social security administration.  I did a brief mini-panic thinking I'd have to go through that whole process with obtaining #7 & #8's birth parents and caseworker again to obtain their accurate names and social security numbers.  

Then I read that the difference in what they would be giving us and what we thought we'd received was about the same amount of the deduction allowed for one dependent and it hit mie.

Summer.  We have not yet changed Summer's name on her social security card nor have we obtained a new social security number.  That being said her name is legally Summer *ourlastname*, not her given name as on file by the SSA.  So, I submitted our taxes with her legal name and old social security number which technically is still assigned to her.  Of course, her legal name doesn't match the social security number now.  

I'm not quite sure what to do about that - yet.

Interestingly, the paperwork from the IRS has a "what to do next" section after explaining the changes.  What to do next involves one step titled "If you agree with our findings...".  There is no instruction on what to do if we do not agree.  Thankfully my husband found a spot that says "contact number" in about 4 pt. font up in the corner of one page and we will be calling them.  I'm guessing I'll either have to resubmit with her former name (on her SSN) or I'll have to get her new ssn and then resubmit.  Either way, it appears as if we won't have an issue with #7 and #8 being dual-claimed.

Maybe that's in the 4th IRS letter...