My son lives with me, so I am claiming him as a dependent. In place of child support payments, his father pays the daycare bill. Who then gets the childcare credit?

[mljohnson]

We have never been married and he doesn’t pay any other form of child support. I’m concerned about taking the childcare credit myself because the daycare payments came directly from his checking account. But I understand that he cannot take the credit since I am the custodial parent and claim our son as a dependent. 

[Anita01 · Accepted solution]

You are exactly correct, he cannot take the child care credit because he was not the custodial parent.  There is some thought that child care paid by the noncustodial parent could be considered as child support provided to the custodial parent, but the tax law is unclear on this topic.  The most conservative approach is for you to not claim this credit but you should definitely try to revise your support system so that child care payments are paid by you as the custodial parent.