Why is Turbotax telling me that we dont qualify for Child and Dependent Care, when we have a substantial bill this year? What would cause us to be disqualified?

Have you entered your income earned from working yet?   If you have not entered income from a W-2 or from self-employment showing a profit the forms for the childcare credit will not populate.  Is your child younger than 13?   Are you filing a joint return?   You cannot get the childcare credit if you file married filing separately.

If TurboTax is telling you you do not qualify there could be a few reasons.

1.  Your child's information is incorrect (missing information) Go back and double check the personal info section to be sure you accurately answered all of the questions regarding your children and yourself.  
2. You entered income for one of you but not both of you.  Double check to be sure that when you entered your income, you selected that it belonged to the right person.
3. You did not enter your income yet.
4. Your income is too high. If your income for the year was greater than $438,000 for married filing jointly, you would not qualify for the Dependent Care Credit.

(Edited 2/24/2022 @ 8:27AM PST)

1. Can confirm, all dependent information entered- Turbotax gave this message "Good news! XYZ qualifies as your dependent."

2./3. Can confirm income entered for both of us - Married filing Jointly.

4. Income far lower than the $438,000 threshold mentioned below.

and yet I get this message-"It turns out you don't qualify for this credit".

I'm really bummed!

You have to make sure you entered income under each spouse's name on the income screens.  If you entered it all under only one of your names it messes you up and you cannot get the childcare credit.

An update - I think this is a bug in Turbo tax's browser. I deleted my dependent to re-add them. As soon as I did that, I saw that my refund reduce considerably. When i added my dependent back, the refund went back to what it was before the deletion. This tells me that the deduction may be getting applied, but browser takes me to the "You don't qualify for the Child and Dependent Care" deduction, regardless.

Either that, or there is something that I cant explain. 

In any case, turbtox product managers should review this issue.

By deleting the child and adding them back, the movement on the refund was probably due to the Child Tax Credit, which is different than the Child and Dependent Care Credit.

In addition to what the other posters have said about both of you needing earned income and your child must be under 13 to receive the Child and Dependent Care Credit, did either you or your spouse receive Dependent Care Benefits in Box 10 of your W-2? If you did, this can reduce or eliminate the Child and Dependent Care Credit for which you would be eligible. 

An easy way to see if you are currently getting the Child and Dependent Care Credit is to preview your Form 1040:

1. Open or continue your return.
2. Select Tax Tools in the left menu (if you don't see this, select the menu icon in the upper-left corner).
3. With the Tax Tools menu open, you can then view your 1040 form: Select Tools. Next, select View Tax Summary in the pop-up, then Preview my 1040 in the left menu
4. Scroll down until you see Schedule 3 Line 13g Credit for child and dependent care expenses. If you received anything it would also be on Form 1040, Line 31. If you are not currently receiving the credit, you may not have a Schedule 3 on your return in which case Line 31 of Form 1040 will be blank. 

This may not be the case for you, but if you have two or more children that qualify but all of the expenses were paid for one child, you must add the second (or third...) child and say $0 for expenses.

I have two children 1 is 13 the other is 8. I have income and have qualified for dependent care every year. I know only my 8 year old qualifies for the credit so why is turbo tax not adding the credit?

It's possible you don't owe any more tax, and that's why you don't qualify. The child and dependent care tax credit is nonrefundable, which means the credit cannot reduce your tax any further if it is already zero.

Make sure you meet all the qualifiers for the credit.

To qualify for the Child and Dependent Care Credit, ALL of the following must be true: 

1. Your dependent is listed (and is either under age 13 or is marked as disabled). 
2. You have earned income. 
3. Your spouse (if filing jointly) also has earned income, is a full-time student, or is disabled. 
4. Your filing status is not Married Filing Separately. 
5. You have provided the caregiver's social security or tax ID number. 
6. You must owe tax. 

The child and dependent care tax credit is nonrefundable, which means the credit cannot reduce your tax any further if it is already zero.  So it's possible you don't owe any more tax, and that's why you don't qualify!  

You can check to be sure that is what is happening by viewing your Tax Summary.   Here is how to do that: 

Log in to your tax return at TurboTax.com. 

1. Click on Tax Tools on the left side of the screen (you may need to click on Continue in the center first). 
2. Click on Tools. 
3. In the box that pops up in the center, click on View Tax Summary. 
4. If you see a 0 for Total Tax, then that is the reason you don't qualify for this particular credit.

On the 2021 tax year ONLY the child care credit was huge and fully refundable but this year (2022) the credit is back to being limited to your tax liability.  

Thank you for your help, it still doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve never owed any taxes, always gotten a nice refund and have been claiming dependent care for the past 13 years. Maybe I need to take a tax class to better understand this situation. This is the first time I’ve been excluded from the dependent care credit so I’m a bit worried I’ll probably just got to a professional instead of trying to file myself.

Review form 2441 for the calculations. 

@ Bosscandy13  Remember that the childcare credit is NON-refundable for 2022.  It can only reduce your tax owed.

@ Bosscandy13  

Just because you get a refund doesn't mean you did not have a tax liability on the return ... it just means that between what you had withheld and the credits you overpaid and thus got a refund.  Form 2441 can only reduce your tax liability to zero .... it cannot add to your refund as it is non refundable in 2022.  Review the entire return to see what is happening.

And to be able to use the credit at all you (and your spouse if married) must have taxable earned income ... so back to the original answer ... did you enter in the income yet ? 

You can view your Form 1040 and Schedules 1, 2, and 3 before you pay the TurboTax fees. But to see any other forms you have to first pay the TurboTax fees.

Paying the fees does not file your tax return. Even after you pay, you still have the opportunity to review your entire tax return, and make sure everything is correct, before you actually file it.

See the following FAQ for instructions to view your return in TurboTax Online. It has instructions to see your entire tax return, or just Form 1040 and Schedules 1, 2, and 3. "Preview my 1040" will also show you Schedules 1, 2, and 3.

How do I preview my TurboTax Online return before filing?

My wife and I have earned income, over $10,000 in qualifying expenses, have a federal tax obligation, and make less than the AGI cut-off.  TurboTax says we do not qualify and provides no explanation or help other than to try to push us to their premium service.  After 8 years, I am done using TurboTax.  The software is glitchy and customer service is poor.  

I suggest you look at your tax return and see if you can identify something.

1. On the menu bar on the left that shows.
   1. My Info
   2. Federal
   3. State
   4. Review
   5. File
2. Select Tax Tools
3. On the drop-down select Tools
4. On the popup menu
5. Select View Tax Summary
6. On the left sidebar
7. Select Preview my 1040.

Line 24 is Total Tax

Lines 27,28,29 are credits that have already been applied.

If your Total Tax minus the other credits does not still result in a tax owed, you will not get the credit.

For 2022, the credit for child and dependent care expenses is nonrefundable and you may claim the credit on qualifying employment-related expenses of up to $3,000 if you had one qualifying person, or $6,000 if you had two or more qualifying persons. The maximum credit is 35% of your employment-related expenses.

Also see: Publication 503 (2022), Child and Dependent Care Expenses  and   The Ins and Outs of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit

@vitosals 

I have the same exact problem - "

It turns out you don't qualify for this credit," despite meeting every requirement. Filing jointly, 2 working parents, each with income reported, way below AGI cap. ~$5000 in qualifying dependent care expenses. Care provider listed, including EIN. Non-zero tax liability after accounting for other credits. Dependent info all correctly entered and qualify for child tax credit. Checked 1040 Preview to confirm total tax > $0, child tax credit correctly applied, but no Dependent Care credit listed. I have entered and re-entered and always get the same unhelpful end result. This is baffling.

CHILD AND DEPENDENT CARE CREDIT

One of the most common mistakes that messes up the childcare credit for people is listing all of the earned income under only one name on a joint return.  Make very sure that your incomes are listed under each of your names.  It’s pretty easy to check.  Go to the Income section, and click “update” on Wages and Salary.  That will take you to the W-2 Summary.  Do you see income listed under both of your names?

Did either of you have an FSA account ?  Is there an amount in box 10 on any W-2? 

A few other things—the childcare credit is not a refund.  It can reduce your taxes owed.  If you were self-employed, but showed a loss, you will not receive the credit.

The person receiving the care had to be 12 or under or qualified as mentally or physically disabled. To claim the childcare credit you need to be filing as Head of Household or Married Filing Jointly. (NOT married filing separately)

If your child was born in 2022  make sure you say the child lived with you all year. The credit is a percentage of your expenses based on your AGI (the higher the income, the lower the percentage)  You must provide the Social Security number for each child you are claiming, and the Social Security number or Tax ID for each care provider.  You can claim a maximum of $6000 in expenses for 2 or more dependents.

Yes, we have two W-2's listed, one for each of our names.

I do have an FSA account, but that only covers a portion of my dependent care expenses. I have ~$5000 of dependent care expenses in addition to what was covered through the FSA. I entered the full amount of dependent care expense, ~$10,000. Somewhere behind the scenes the system presumably subtracts the $5000 for FSA from my W2. That leaves ~$5000 still qualifying.

All else is not applicable. We have tax liability. We have no self-employment loss. My only dependent is much younger than 13. Married, filing jointly. Child was born before 2022 and I checked the box that they lived in this home all year. SSN was provided for child. EIN was provided for dependent care provider. "

It turns out you don't qualify for this credit." It would be extremely helpful for TurboTax to indicate why. Otherwise, this just seems to be an error that I cannot resolve.

@jarealio Sorry---you misunderstood the rules...and the rules changed from 2021 returns to 2022---so no surprise there.   You get a total of $6000 toward the credit IF YOU HAVE TWO CHILDREN.  You got $5000 of "pre-tax" money by paying from your FSA account.  You do not get another $5000 of childcare credit for childcare.   If you only have one child you already got the $3000 of untaxed money for childcare.    If you have two kids, you get another $1000 of the credit---that's it.  The childcare credit can only reduce your tax owed----it is not refundable.

We are having the exact same issue and none of the glitch-fixes have worked.  We have a tax obligation, qualifying expenses, two parents with earned income, make less than the AGI cap, etc.  TurboTax does not want to provide relevant support as to why we purportedly do not qualify unless we upgrade to a premium service.  Honestly, unless they shed light on the issue, I am done using TurboTax.  The customer service is bad, the software is unhelpful, and I would rather support a tax professional in my area and talk to a human then pay for their premium service.  

@xmasbaby0 Thank you, I think that does explain it. I see contradictory guidance on that point on various websites, some which indicate that the dependent care credit for 1 child is available for up to $3,000 above any amount covered by the FSA. But I found guidance from the FSA that is more clear and consistent with what you stated. For 1 child, the only way to claim any dependent care credit is if you paid less than $3,000 into a dependent care FSA.

@jarealio take a look at examples 1 and 2 under p. 13 "Reduced Dollar Limit" of publication 503.  I think I made the same mistake.  I max out my FSA for dependent care ($5,000) and the IRS considers that to use up all of the $3,000 in possible tax credit that we would get for one child.  I have about $10k in expenses for 2022 so I thought that I could use the other $5k not funded through an FSA for this credit, but it seems like I cannot. 

I wonder whether it would make financial sense for some families who could earn the maximum under the tax credit, who have a tax liability over $3,000, to forego an FSA.  $3,000 credit is definitely better than roughly $1500 in tax savings done through FSA, but I guess the difficult question is predicting whether you will have a tax liability greater than your FSA.  

@jarealio The rules changed drastically for this credit from 2021 returns to 2022 returns----so you are among many who were caught unaware until you had already put that money into an account expecting to take advantage of it.  And..for 2021 child care credit was refundable... for 2022 it is not.