The IRS has begun adjusting 2025 returns for more than 50,000 taxpayers who carried adoption credits forward from earlier years, and the adjustment arrives with no status page to follow. The agency’s own question-and-answer page says Where’s My Refund will not show it, and that any amount turned into a refund comes out of the carryforward left for the 2026 tax return. A notice, not a tracker, is how the news reaches these families.
Why the IRS is adjusting 2025 adoption-credit returns without an amended return
The change traces to a Treasury clarification of the Working Families Tax Cuts law, according to an IRS news release dated Oct. 16, 2026. For tax year 2025 only, adoption-credit carryforwards from 2020 through 2024 can increase the refundable part of the credit, up to $5,000 per qualifying child.
The IRS found 2025 returns that left those carryforwards unused and is correcting them itself. Frank J. Bisignano, the agency’s chief executive officer, said in the release that refunding without requiring an amended return lightens the financial burden on families who adopted.
Adjustments began in late September and will continue until all are complete. The IRS’s adoption credit page, last updated Oct. 19, says most refunds will be issued automatically by Dec. 31, 2026. Returns filed before April 15, 2026 are generally adjusted without any action by the filer.
The people affected are those who claimed the adoption credit on Form 8839 in a year from 2020 through 2024, still had an unused nonrefundable portion, and filed a 2025 return. For them, the practical step is not paperwork. It is watching for the IRS notice, which the release says generally comes within 30 days of the adjustment and states the amount and whether it was refunded or applied to another debt.
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Where’s My Refund will not show the adjustment
The IRS’s Q&A on the adoption credit carryforward, reviewed Oct. 8, is blunt on the point. Where’s My Refund will not display this adjustment. Once it posts, it can be seen in the Individual Online Account or on a tax account transcript.
The notice may also be a one-time mailing. The Q&A says the IRS may not reissue it, and that a copy can be pulled from the online account. The agency tells families to keep it with their 2025 return, Form 8839, carryforward worksheets, expense documentation and any employer adoption-benefit records.
The adjustment does not always end in a deposit. The Q&A says the result may be a smaller refund than $5,000 per child, a reduced balance due, or nothing. An overpayment can also be applied to certain past-due debts, in which case an offset notice follows, and a spouse who is not responsible for the debt may file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation.
Interest is included where the law requires it and appears on the notice or the transcript. An estimated-tax penalty is not automatically reduced. A filer who wants relief has to ask through the penalty notice, or on Form 843 if the notice is gone.
The 2020-2024 carryforward gets smaller for the 2026 return
The 2025 forms do not change. The IRS says Form 8839 and its instructions will not be updated, that preparers should follow the forms as issued, and that tax software which ignores the carryforward should be followed anyway, because the IRS makes the adjustment on its end.
That sets up a bookkeeping trap one year later. Whatever amount the IRS turns into a refundable credit is no longer available as a carryforward, so the figure on the 2026 return has to reflect the correction. The Q&A says to use the Nonrefundable Adoption Credit Carryforward Worksheet for line 18 in the 2025 Form 8839 instructions.
On line 8 of that worksheet, the instructions call for the Form 8839 line 18 amount plus the increase in the refundable credit. The increase comes from the notice or the transcript, not from the total refund or the balance due, which can be different numbers once offsets and interest are counted.
A carryforward lasts up to five years and the oldest year is used first, which means the 2020 balance goes before the 2024 one. Pre-2020 carryforwards have already expired. The adjustment does not change adjusted gross income, taxable income or qualified expenses, according to the Q&A.
The IRS’s credit page lists a separate 2026 credit of up to $17,670 in qualified expenses per child, with up to $5,120 refundable per qualifying child. The Q&A says the carryforward does not become refundable again in 2026 and directs filers to the 2026 instructions.
Who the automatic adjustment leaves out
The Q&A says not everyone gets one. It names people who did not file a 2025 federal return, people with no usable 2025 carryforward, and people who already received the correct refundable credit. It also names those who never claimed the credit, unless a Form 8839 from 2020 through 2024 showed a carryforward.
Filers who entered no carryforward on their 2025 return may fall outside it too, because the IRS may lack the information it needs. For them and for anyone who disagrees with an adjustment, the route is Form 1040-X with Form 8839. The IRS says not to amend solely to request this adjustment.
Amended returns remain right for other errors, including filing status, income, dependents, qualified expenses and the carryforward amount. They also matter when a carryforward was used as a nonrefundable credit while another credit applied. The Q&A lists Forms 8859, 5695, 8834, 8911, 3800, 8801 and 8912 as examples.
Extension filers wait longest. The release says those who filed under extension, and accounts with identity theft indicators, freezes or dependency conflicts, will be reviewed later in 2026. The adjustment holds until the account issue is resolved, and the IRS has not said how many taxpayers are in that group.
The release gives a count of more than 50,000 and a $5,000 per-child ceiling but no dollar total, and the IRS says the actual amount depends on each return. The agency’s Form 8839 page, updated Oct. 8, still lists no recent developments and only links to the Q&A.
That gap leaves the filer with the notice as the only reliable record of what changed, and the 2026 carryforward figure depends on getting it right. Families who spend the refund and file next year from last year’s worksheet risk carrying forward a credit the IRS has already paid out.
Does last year’s carryforward figure still hold on the 2026 return?
An adoption carryforward that quietly shrinks is one more number a household has to recalculate, and the IRS notice is the only place the new figure appears. The related job here is broader than adoption, since a correction like this is one small piece of a household’s whole tax picture.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
