I have two children under the age of 13, one of whom attends daycare. TurboTax is saying that my $5800.00 expense for that one child can be claimed for both my children.

[nathacar]

The IRS agent I spoke to over the phone tells me that I can only claim the credit up to $3000 for the child I paid expenses on, but TurboTax says otherwise in <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2935835-why-do-i-have-a-child-with-no-care-expenses-listed-in-the-... is correct?

[TaxGuyBill · Accepted solution]

The program is correct.  You are allowed up to $6,000 of expenses because you have two qualifying children.  It does not matter all of the expense was for one child.

Here is an excerpt from the Instructions for Form 2441 (which is the form to claim the Child Care Credit):

To qualify for the credit, you must have one or more

qualifying persons. You should show the expenses for

each child in column (c) of line 2. However, it is possible a

qualifying child could have no expenses and a second

child could have expenses exceeding $3,000. You should

list -0- for the one child and the actual amount for the

second child. The $6,000 limit would still be used to

compute your credit unless you have already excluded or

deducted, in Part III, certain dependent care benefits paid

to you (or on your behalf) by your employer.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2441.pdf#page=3