topic Why won't turbotax allow me to claim a dependent care tax credit? in Deductions & credits

Why won't turbotax allow me to claim a dependent care tax credit?

jaeger06 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:03:16 GMT

I've looked up some common problems
-Both of us had incomes and are filed under the correct person
-We had an FSA, but I had 16k in childcare expenses, 5k in FSA
-Income is not too high
-Married filing jointly

Re: Why won't turbotax allow me to claim a dependent care tax credit?

Critter-3 — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:37:21 GMT

Ok ... if you had one child the credit is on the FIRST $3000 of the cost but you had an FSA which you used for the first $5000 of the cost thus you have no cost to take the credit against in 2022. The rules were much different in 2021(where you could take a fully refundable credit up to $8K per child) but in 2022 we are back to the normal rules and this year you don't qualify.

Re: Why won't turbotax allow me to claim a dependent care tax credit?

jaeger06 — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 14:24:27 GMT

Pretty sure thats incorrect. I know rules have changed but both on turbotax and the IRS website it says that you can use both, you just cant claim the same expenses you claimed with the FSA. So i would need to have 5k in childcare expenses for the FSA, and an additional 3k for the dependent care credit

Or as turbotax puts it: "you have 5000 of employer provided care benefits. In order to receive this credit, your expenses must be more than this amount"