Turbotax does not let me enter dependent care credit info for 13 year old child

[Frankz650]

My son turned 13 in Dec 2022.  When I tried to enter dependent care credit, I got error message in Turbotax:

Your child is Over Age 12 and was not disabled, his expenses will not qualify for the child and dependent care credit.

How come? Dependent care flexible spending account covers child up to 13 years old. Why turbotax says 12?

[NCperson]

@Frankz650 the child has to be UNDER 13.  the age as of 12/31 is all that matters 

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc602

see the section titled 'qualifying individual" 

[TomD8]

@Frankz650 —

The Dependent Care FSA and the Child and Dependent Care Credit are two separate programs, each with its own rules.

[NCperson]

@Frankz650 _ i didn't catch the nuance that while your question was about th "child care credit". in the body of your response you stated the child care FSA.  

my response was solely about the child care credit and not the FSA. 

The FSA permits expenses until the child reaches 13, so the expenses from the earlier part of year are fine. See "qualifying person(s)" section, 

https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2441

[rjs]

This appears to be a bug in the TurboTax interview for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. You can claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit for care that was provided prior to the child's 13th birthday. The instructions for Form 2441 say "If the child turned 13 during the year, the child is a qualifying person for the part of the year he or she was under age 13." IRS Publication 503 says "A qualifying person is: 1. Your qualifying child who is your dependent and who was under age 13 when the care was provided. [italics added]"

You didn't say whether you are using TurboTax Online or the CD/Download TurboTax software. If you are using the CD/Download software you can work around the problem by entering the child care expenses in forms mode. Open the Dependent and Nondependent Information Worksheet for the child who turned 13 in 2022. Scroll down to Part III - Dependent Care Expenses. Enter the care expenses for that child on the first line in Part III, "Qualified child or dependent care expenses incurred and paid in 2022." Then you can return to the Step-by-Step interview and complete the interview for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. You will get the credit for the child who turned 13 in 2022.

I will report the bug to the forum moderators. However, to be honest, this late in the filing season it is unlikely that it will be fixed.

[Frankz650]

Thanks! This is very helpful. I have CD version. Unfortunately the software does not allow me to enter Part II Credit for Child and Dependent Care Expenses as I have Dependent Care Benefits from my employer - i.e., my child care FSA election. My FSA money is less than my child care spend, so I still need to enter Part II. But because of the software bug I can't do that either in Step-by-Step or the Forms.

[rjs]

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@Frankz650 wrote:

the software does not allow me to enter Part II Credit for Child and Dependent Care Expenses

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Part II of what form? Are you referring to Part II of Form 2441? You cannot make manual entries directly in Part II of Form 2441. That's not a bug. When you enter the total expenses (including the amount from the FSA) in the Dependent and Nondependent Information Worksheet as I described above, it will make the necessary entries in Part II of Form 2441.

Your dependent care FSA benefits should be in box 10 of your W-2. You don't enter it anywhere else. If it's entered in W-2 box 10 it will automatically adjust the amount of qualified expenses in Part II of Form 2441.

[Frankz650]

Got it now. It works! Thanks