Can you deduct childcare expenses if you used a FSA - pretax dollars to pay for a portion of said expenses?

[LinaJ2018 · Accepted solution]

No, if you used the pre-tax contribution made in FSA account to pay for your childcare expenses, you cannot take the Dependent Care Credit. 

As the child care funding in your Flexible Spending Account FSA is considered as a pre-tax dollar contribution, you can take the Dependent Care Credit ONLY on the expenses paid exceeding the total amount contributed in the FSA. For example, if you are allowed to put in $5200 in your FSA as a pre-tax contribution , you are not allowed to take the credit unless you spent more than $5200 on the child care expenses.

[PeterZTichacek]

Thanks!  So we contributed $2,500 for dependent care but spent over $5,000.  So would we take the amount we spent minus the contribution and declare the balance as "amount paid" in 2016?  We *may* still qualify for the credit then?

[LinaJ2018]

Yes.  that's correct.  Only the after -tax dollars paid for child care qualify for the benefit.

[royj1]

I have a question, I contributed $5,000 to my dependent care FSA but spent an additional $9,902 after-tax dollars on said daycare, but for some reason I am not allowed to claim anything more than the $5,000.  This doesn't seem right to me...

[annzalasky]

The same thing is happening to me. I contributed $5,000 into my FSA but, paid an additional $7000 in child care. Why can't I claim the credit for the balance that I paid out of pocket?