Can I pay my spouse $6000? I work on a W-2 and my spouse doesn't work. What would be the affect on our joint income if I did pay my spouse?
I would like to claim child care expenses for our children that we place in daycare, but my spouse has no income. How would I go about documenting this appropriately?
Aside from that is so wrong( tax fraud) ... by the time she reports the SE income for some made up self employed business & pays the federal, state & SE taxes on that $6000 you would actually owe more than you could possibly get for the credit ... so it is a worthless and illegal effort ... don't do it.
There are a couple of exceptions to the requirement that your spouse must have income. Why did you place your child in daycare if your spouse did not work?
Unless you are "at least" self-employed and report your business income/expenses on SCH C, there is no way you can legally hire your spouse as an employee or contractor for anything. If you are self-employed, then provide the details. Single Member LLC? Multi-member LLC? S-Corp? C-Corp? Partnership? Something else?
Since you "work on a W-2", there's no way you can pay your spouse for anything to get her income.