topic "Your dependent care expenses" or "Your expenses for care providers" screen for daycare in Deductions & credits

"Your dependent care expenses" or "Your expenses for care providers" screen for daycare

Daboa — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 23:04:35 GMT

I have expenses for daycare. The wizard shows me two screens: "Your dependent care expenses" and "Your expenses for care providers."

If I put the daycare expenses under "Your dependent care expenses," my tax refund increases. This seems appropriate because daycare is listed as a valid expense on the help for this page.

But we pay a provider. So I removed the expense and added it to "Your expenses for care providers" instead. But this didn't increase our tax refund. I find these 2 pages confusing. Am I supposed to enter the expense on only one of these 2 pages? If so, which one? Or should I enter it on both?

Re: "Your dependent care expenses" or "Your expenses for care providers" screen for daycare

MonikaK1 — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 23:30:22 GMT

When you go back to the Dependent Care Credit section, you will see a display with the name of the dependent and the amount of care expense allocated to that dependent. Click on the pencil icon on the same line as the dollar amount if you need to edit the amount. If all the expenses were paid to one provider, then the total for the provider should equal the total of the amounts entered for each dependent's care.

TurboTax asks questions to determine whether you may qualify for the credit, such as that you need to incur dependent care expenses to work or to be a full-time student. It creates separate sections for expenses for each dependent, and you enter the expense relating to each child.

If you continue through the section, it also displays the total amount attributed to each care provider.

If you need to add another provider or more expenses for the same child:

Login to your account.
Select Federal from the left menu.
Go to Deductions and Credits.
Scroll down to Child and Dependent Care Credit and click Update.
Answer Yes to the question " Do you want to review you Child and Dependent Care Credit information?"
Continue to the screen Here is what you spent on Care providers.
Select Add another care Provider

Child and dependent care expenses must be work-related to qualify for the credit. Expenses are considered work-related only if both of the following are true:

They allow you (and your spouse if filing jointly) to work or look for work.
They are for a qualifying person's care.

According to the IRS, a qualifying individual for the child and dependent care credit is:

Your dependent qualifying child who was under age 13 when the care was provided,
Your spouse who was physically or mentally incapable of self-care and lived with you for more than half of the year, or
An individual who was physically or mentally incapable of self-care, lived with you for more than half of the year, and either: (a) was your dependent; or (b) could have been your dependent except that he or she received gross income of $5,200 or more, or filed a joint return, or you (or your spouse, if filing jointly) could have been claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer's 2025 return.

Please see this TurboTax tips article for more information about the Child and Dependent Care credit.

Re: "Your dependent care expenses" or "Your expenses for care providers" screen for daycare

Daboa — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 04:03:41 GMT

Thank you for the thorough reply, but it unfortunately does not answer my question. What I don't understand is whether qualifying expenses to a care provider should be added both to the 1st screen and 2nd screen as shown below. Or is that doubling my claim and I should only be adding the provider to one of the two screens?

Does it matter whether the totals on the 2 screens match?

Re: "Your dependent care expenses" or "Your expenses for care providers" screen for daycare

MarilynG1 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:37:14 GMT

No, you're not doubling up on these screens. The first screen is asking about your total Dependent Care Expenses for each child. The second screen is breaking down who you paid the expenses to.

You could have multiple child care providers, but the total amounts paid to the providers on the second screen should equal the total amounts you paid for Dependent Care on the first screen.

Here's more detailed info on the Child Care Credit.

@Daboa