@ahock - you are appending to an old post..... not sure what year you are asking about. did you contribute to a dependent care FSA???????
if not, unique to 2021, the dependent care tax credit is a refundable credit.... normally it's a non-refundable credit.
a non-refundable credit can't reduce Line 22 of Form 1040 below zero, so if you have no income (because your business took a loss), your tax liabiltiy is zero and there is no value to the tax credit.
But for 2021, because of ARPA, passed by Congress, they said for 2021, that didn't matter, you get the credit even if Line 22 is zero.... that is a 'refundable credit'.
