Spent $14043 in child care expenses for two kids but TT lists only $11417 in qualified dependent expense. Please help.

[rxtaxgrl78]

Hi, I have two kids (aged 5 and 7) in elementary school.  We used 4 different providers and spent a total of $14043 in expenses for summer day camp and after school programs.  We have $5000 in dep care FSA and we both work (W2s input correctly).  Under "Child and Dependent Care Credit Summary", "eligible dependent care expenses is listed as $11417 instead of $14043.  I've read and re-read sections about qualifying expenses and all the costs qualify.  The difference is $2626 in qualifying expenses, which happens to be the amount paid to the school district sponsored onsite after school program for the 5 year old.  $11417-$5000 (FSA) = $6147 in expenses eligible for credit (instead of $14043-$5000=$9043).  I looked at form 2441 but couldn't figure out how they came up with $6147 instead of $9043.  I looked over various relevant discussions and looked at common errors - made sure W2 are under correct people (we both work), no carryover FSA from 2020, both kids are listed as dependents, etc.  Is this a TurboTax error or am I misunderstanding something?  Thanks in advance for your help!

[KrisD15 · Accepted solution]

If the difference is the 2,626 you paid to the school district, I would revisit that entry screen. 

Did you enter a tax ID number for the school or select that it is tax exempt ?

There are other limits as well, but since you say the difference is exactly the 2,626 paid to the school, I would look at that particular entry. 

You'll need to select tax exempt and enter the name of the school as the business. 

[rxtaxgrl78]

Thanks for the reply.  I entered the tax ID and name as listed on the tax statement provided by the organization.  After playing around with the software, I was able to go in and manually enter the amount of childcare expenses for each child.  The program auto populated the amounts, but I was able to manually update it to include the $2626.  That fixed the problem.