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Get your taxes done using TurboTax
The credit depends upon other information that has been entered before it will approve the credit. The software may be looking for other pieces of information to have already been entered before it will approve you for the credit. Perhaps income income information or dependent information has not yet been completely entered.
The software may not have enough information to qualify the dependent as a qualifying child.
If you are filing a married filing jointly tax return, each taxpayer must report earned income. Make sure that W-2’s are correctly marked for each spouse.
To be able to claim the credit for child and dependent care expenses, you must meet all the following tests.
- Qualifying Person Test. The care must be for one or more qualifying persons who are identified on Form 2441.
- Earned Income Test. You (and your spouse if filing jointly) must have earned income during the year.
- Work-Related Expense Test. You must pay child and dependent care expenses so you (and your spouse if filing jointly) can work or look for work.
- You must make payments for child and dependent care to someone you (and your spouse) can't claim as a dependent. If you make payments to your child (including stepchild or foster child), he or she can't be your dependent and must be age 19 or older by the end of the year. You can't make payments to:
- Your spouse, or
- The parent of your qualifying person if your qualifying person is your child and under age 13.
- Joint Return Test. Your filing status may be single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse. If you are married, you must file a joint return, unless an exception applies to you..
- Provider Identification Test. You must identify the care provider on your tax return.
- If you exclude or deduct dependent care benefits provided by a dependent care benefit plan, the total amount you exclude or deduct must be less than the dollar limit for qualifying expenses (generally, $3,000 if you had one qualifying person or $6,000 if you had two or more qualifying persons) in order for you to claim a credit on the remaining amount. (If you had two or more qualifying persons, the amount you exclude or deduct will always be less than the dollar limit because the total amount you can exclude or deduct is limited to $5,000.
Are you filing a married filing jointly tax return? If so, each taxpayer must report earned income. To check what has been entered in the program:
- Go to Federal / Wages & Income / Your income / Job (W-2).
- Click Edit / Add to the right.
- At the screen Your W-2 info so far, the summary will show the name for each W-2 as it was entered.
IRS Publication 503 page 4 states:
You Must Have Earned Income
To claim the credit, you (and your spouse if filing jointly) must have earned income during the year.
[Edited 1/16/2023 | 03:50 pm PST]
@jennifee26
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