Dependent Care

[Vmal87]

Hello! I am wanting to use the dependent care credit since I pay my mom to watch my kids while I work. I can enter her social and info and the amount paid no issue but she passed the day after Christmas however I did pay her during the year prior to her surprise exit. I can still enter, right? She’s just not going to be filing any taxes this year obviously since she’s deceased and I don’t know how that all works for the state to tax her on the amount or if it causes any delays for my return

[ThomasM125]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

You can still claim the monies you paid your mother to qualify for the dependent care credit. However, there may need to be a tax return filed on her behalf on which you would need to report the payments to her as income. In the year of death, a tax return needs to be filed reporting income for that year up to the date of death, assuming there is enough income to require a tax return to be filed.

You can use this IRS tool to determine if you need to file tax return for your mother in the year of her death:

Do I need to file a tax return?

[Vmal87]

@ThomasM125 Thank you, for your condolences and the guidance.

 So I used the “do I file a return” and entered her information and it prompted me she did not qualify to file a return even with what I paid her. I just want to be sure when I file that it’s not going to cause any delays on my return on my end I guess?

[ThomasM125]

No, it won't delay your refund, her death with have no affect on your tax return.

[Vmal87]

@ThomasM125  Thank you very much for the clarification. I was so confused before hand- just filed and entered her social. Have a wonderful tax year