Child and Dependent Care credit section in Turbo tax

[lunac0231]

My spouse and I file  as 'married filing separately' status. Each of us contributed $2500 to two separate dependent care FSA accounts in 2023. We have 1 child together. My spouse claimed the child as dependent on her tax return. Now I am filing my tax return , is my understanding correct that I cannot claim the child as dependent on my return, so I shouldn't fill in child and dependent care credit section in Turbotax, in another word, there will be no form 2441('Child and Dependent Care Expenses') OR  schedule 8812('Credits for Qualifying Children and Other Dependents’) attached to my tax return?

Thanks.

[xmasbaby0]

Sorry---when you file married filing separately you cannot get the child care credit on a tax return.   Your spouse is not going to get the credit either.

Why are you filing separate returns?  That is usually the worst way to file.

If you were legally married at the end of 2023 your filing choices are married filing jointly or married filing separately.

Married Filing Jointly is usually better, even if one spouse had little or no income. When you file a joint return, you and your spouse will get the married filing jointly standard deduction of $27,700 (+$1500 for each spouse 65 or older)  You are eligible for more credits including education credits, earned income credit, child and dependent care credit, and a larger income limit to receive the child tax credit. 

If you choose to file married filing separately, both spouses have to file the same way—either you both itemize or you both use standard deduction. Your tax rate will be higher than on a joint return.

 Some of the special rules for filing separately include: you cannot get earned income credit, education credits, adoption credits, or deductions for student loan interest. A higher percent of your Social Security benefits may be taxable. Your limit for SALT (state and local taxes and sales tax) will be only $5000 per spouse. In many cases you will not be able to take the child and dependent care credit. The amount you can contribute to a retirement account will be affected. If you live in a community property state, you will be required to provide additional information regarding your spouse’s income. ( Community property states:  AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI)

 If  you are using online TurboTax to prepare your returns, you will need to prepare two separate returns and pay twice since with online, you get one return per fee.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894449-married-filing-jointly-vs-married-filing-separately

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901162-married-filing-separately-in-community-property-states

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894449-is-it-better-for-a-married-couple-to-file-jointly-or-separ...

[lunac0231]

Yes, we are aware that even my spouse who claim the dependent won’t get the child care credit either, in fact due to the dependent care FSA contribution, that credit will be reduced to zero anyway, even if we file jointly.

My question is more about whether I should fill in the child and dependent care section in TurboTax if I am not claiming the child as dependent on my return , I assume this won’t matter as much since  I am not going to get a credit.I just want to make sure this won’t raise any red flag on the IRS side

I heard your points about the filing status, there are some reasons why we decided to file separately but we will revisit this topic and do more calculation to see if it makes more sense to file jointly.

Thank you!

[MarilynG1 · Accepted solution]

Since you are not claiming your child on your return, it would definitely not raise any red flag to not enter any dependent care info. 

In fact, the opposite might be true. 

@lunac0231