Thanks @ColeenD3.! Resurrecting my chain with two final questions:
I set aside $10,500 (the limit) in 2021 for dependent care expenses through my employer flex spending account. My actual childcare expenses were less, and I had approximately $1000 left over at the end of the year. I understand from the above (helpful!) responses that because my child care expenses were less than $10,500 I cannot claim the child and dependent care credit, so I deleted my entries in TurboTax associated with that credit. This leaves me two follow-up questions.
(1) I originally stated in TurboTax that I used up all $10,500. I then realized that was wrong so I indicated that I had $1000 left over in my account at the end of 2021 (which was rolled over). When I deleted the zero (no money left over) and put $1000, my tax liability decreased (specifically, my refund went up). Why is that?
(2) My understanding is that since I had that $1000 left over, I have to fill out a Form 2441. Is that true? However, when I look at the Form there are lots of blanks (for day care provider, etc.) - do I need to fill those in manually in the form? I'm used to TurboTax prompting me to need to enter everything I need to enter (so that the appropriate forms can be automatically populated). I'm not sure if something got messed up because I originally filled out the dependent care credit section and then deleted it (when I realized I wasn't eligible for that credit).
Thanks!
