Form 2441 Child and Dependent Care Expenses _ 2021 Return

[Muhreuhh]

When filing in 01/2021 for 2020 tax-year, TurboTax sent me an email stating "Your 2020 tax return was started, using your info from last year." I reviewed my return and it does not show Child & Dependent Care Expenses for the daycare that I had used in 01/2020 (2019 tax-year). 

My return in 2020 was $2,000 less, would it be because the Daycare expense did not carry over from 2019 return? 

[xmasbaby0]

If you filed your tax return without entering all the information needed in order to get the childcare credit then you can amend the return.   You have to enter the amount you paid the childcare provider and enter the childcare providers Social Security number or their Tax ID in order to get the credit.  And of course you have to enter income earned from working.

Select your tax year for amending instructions:

• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017

[ThomasM125]

It is possible the $2,000 you reference is for a child tax credit, rather than a child and dependent care credit for your daycare expenses, since $2,000 is the amount per child for the child tax credit in recent years.

Your daycare expense amount would not carryover from one year to the next. You need to enter the amount you pay for qualifying daycare expenses each year. There is a limit on how much in expenses you can use to calculate the credit each year. If you have more expenses than is allowed, you cannot carryover the used expenses to the next year.

The information on your daycare provider may carryover, but you still need to enter the daycare expense amount each year.

Your child tax credit would appear on line 19 of your 2020 form 1040.