Why won't TT self-employed let me deduct child care?

[morphMcFrank]

I am trying to enter child care expenses. My wife and I are both self employed and have entered income in the business section. However the child care section says "It turns out you don't qualify for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. To qualify for this credit, both you and your spouse need to have earned income, which is money earned from a job. We don't see any for your spouse yet. If your spouse had earned income last year, enter it in Wages & Income and then come back to see if you qualify for this credit."

However, we don;t have any W-2s to enter as we both run our own businesses.

[ChristinaS · Accepted solution]

If Turbo Tax is not recognizing income for your spouse, this is due to one of these reasons:

• Your wife's business is showing as a loss, or as a $0 after expenses. To have earned income for the purposes of the Child and Dependent Care credit, the net Schedule C income must be greater than $0.
• The businesses are both being attributed to you inside the program. One of them is hers, and the correction would need to be made. Edit the business from the beginning. A few screens in, you can switch the radio button to the correct spouse without losing the information.