Laying yourself bare in front of strangers: He may be better known for his comments on interest rates and inflation, but ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake has also become well-versed in matters of inter-country adoption.
[Note, some may find the following comment interesting, "The people who do adopt children tend to be those who are moderately comfortable to well-off, and they are doing it for their own reasons as well as noble ones."]
2 comments:
I didn't intend anything judgemental by that observation. It was simply made in the context of a discussion about the fees and charges levied by State Government agencies for processing adoption applications. My point was that it wasn't unreasonable for those agencies to operate on a 'full cost recovery basis', since the families who adopt children from overseas are, in general, not 'poor' and shouldn't be cross-subsidized by other State taxpayers.
On the other hand - and I also said this to the reporter - adopting families should be able to deduct the expenses incurred in adopting (including fees paid to State agencies) from their taxable income, in much the same way as biological parents can claim medical expenses either from their health insurance fund or as tax deductions. The US tax system is much fairer to adopting parents in this respect than the Australian system.
Thanks for the clarifying comments.
-- Walter
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