Should I enter caregiving cost for my dependent mother as part Medical Expenses deduction or dependent care credit?

[neworchid]

I'm providing more than 50% of support for my mom who lives with my husband and me.  She's disabled, with uneven gait and left-sided weakness, hypertension, history of strokes and falls, and uses a wheelchair.  We have rehab document stating my mother requires 24-hour supervision because of her  weakness and tendency to fall, but we can only afford to pay 8-hour caregiving.

Our medical expenses for her is way over 7.5% of our AGI.

1. Should the in-home caregiving expenses be included in the Medical Expense items as deduction (as qualified long-term care) or as dependent care credit (form 2441)?  
2. Do we have a choice which one to take ?  
3. When I searched for Form 2441, it seemed like it was going to let us have both the deduction and the credit.  That couldn't be right... Why would Turbotax not have interview questions to double-check?

Thanks!

[Ashby]

Does your parent qualify as a dependent? Income less than $4,150?

[neworchid]

yes, she has no income

[Ashby · Accepted solution]

Looks like you max out the credit first and then medical expenses above the credit limit can be used for itemized deductions.

Medical expenses.

Some expenses for the care of qualifying persons who aren't able to care for themselves may qualify as work-related expenses and also as medical expenses. You can use them either way, but you can't use the same expenses to claim both a credit and a medical expense deduction.

If you use these expenses to figure the credit and they are more than the earned income limit or the dollar limit, discussed later, you can add the excess to your medical expenses. However, if you use your total expenses to figure your medical expense deduction, you can't use any part of them to figure your credit. For information on medical expenses, see Pub. 502, Medical and Dental Expenses.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p503#en_US_2018_publink1000203342