Child Care Credit and Alternating Work Schedules

[vsavatar]

My wife and I both work, but my wife only works on days I have off.  Our son attends preschool three days a week while I'm working, but my wife is home.  The criteria for claiming the child care credit is that the expense must be incurred so "you" can work or look for work.  Am I correct in my belief that because she works only when I'm home, that I cannot claim the child care credit, because she is available to care for our child when I'm at work during the week?  Turbotax seems to want to give it to me, so it's possible my interpretation is wrong, but I was wondering what the community thinks.

[JotikaT2 · Accepted solution]

Based upon what you are saying above, you would not qualify for the credit.

See the following flowchart.

Based upon the above, you will need to change your input in TurboTax so it does not calculate the credit for you.

Confirm your entries in the "Deductions & Credits" section of the Federal input.

• Under "Your Tax Breaks", select revisit for "Child and Dependent Care Credit."
• The next screen will ask you if you paid for care in 2019.  Answer no.

If you are still being prompted to enter information after answering no above, you can also delete the form per the instructions in the following link:

Deleting Child & Dependent care form