Can I claim the child care credit?

[kay_may08]

Hello, I work as a photographer and artist. So my hours are weird. My husband works full time and received his W-2. Since I'm self-employed, I'm using Turbotax home and business. I enter my info under the business portion and I don't have a W-2. My business is just paying for itself right now since I'm just starting out. When I'm working I take my son to daycare, so he goes only when I'm working during the day, so he is part-time there. Under the child and dependent tax credit portion, it is not recognizing me as working, so I can't put information in for that portion. It says both parents have to be working or full-time students, or disabled. It brings up a box saying under both my husband and my names, check if full-time student, disabled, or non of the above. I check none of the above, of course. Then it says are not eligible. How do I get Turbo tax to recognize that I am working so I can claim child care?

[DianeW]

Based on your information, it appears as though your business is not yet showing a profit, but a loss.  The Child Care Credit requires that both the taxpayer and spouse have income.  The credit is limited by using the amount paid for child care or the amount of income from your work or your husband's work.

For this reason, the child care credit is reduced to zero in your situation.  The only exceptions to that are disability or full time student status of one of the parents.

[kay_may08]

Because I'm working and not making a profit yet, we don't qualify for the tax credit?

This rule doesn't make any sense to me. You would think if I'm not making a profit we would need more of the tax credit than two spouses making a profit, lol.