@Cynthiad66 wrote:
Since the child care funding in your Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is considered as a pre-tax dollar contribution, you can take the Dependent Care Credit ONLY on the expenses paid exceeding the total amount contributed in the FSA. For example, if you are allowed to put in $5000 in your FSA as a pre-tax contribution , you are not allowed to take the credit unless you spent more than $5000 on the child care expenses.
To deduct the expenses, you need to enter the total amount spent on child care during 2020 only. You have to show child care provider, Employer Identification or social security of provider, amount paid. TurboTax will do the calculation for you.
When filing MFS, you are not allowed to claim the child and dependent credit at all. You are allowed to have a dependent care FSA to pay for care, but your maximum FSA is $2500 instead of $5000.
Turbotax will not want to give you the credit on form 2441 if you are MFS, but if you have an amount in box 10 of your W-2, the program should be required to fill out the form. The previous expert @ThomasM125 indicated you can't do this with TT online, I haven't verified that myself.
Turbotax will ask how much you spent on care, how much reimbursement you got, and how much was forfeited in the account. It will get the size of the account from your W-2. If your expenses are more than $2500, any amount over that will not be eligible for the credit if you are MFS. Any amount paid to you that does not match to qualified expenses will be taxed as regular income, and any amount forfeit is just forfeit.
