The $13,000 adoption tax credit is back!

By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney February 13, 2012: 1:21 PM ET

Deborah Schwinger received a $24,300 tax refund last year after adopting two children,
Matthew (left) and Lizzy (middle). But getting the money from the IRS wasn't easy.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- An adoption tax credit that brought huge refunds to many unsuspecting families last year is back. Taxpayers can claim up to $13,360 for each child they have adopted in the past six years on their 2011 tax returns this year -- an increase of $190 from last year.

The credit has been around since 1997, but up until the 2010 tax year, it was always a non-refundable credit -- meaning it would offset any taxes owed, and anything that remained was carried over to the next tax year.

President Obama's Affordable Care Act of 2010 made the credit refundable so the money would go directly into the taxpayer's pocket rather than being applied to future taxes owed.

But, unless Congress extends the credit by the end of this year, the 2011 tax year will be the last year that taxpayers can cash in on the credit.

A 'godsend': FULL STORY

I feel like I am gonna throw up, thinking about how many of these kids were kidnapped from their real families because of poverty.