I pay my mom for babysitting my children at my home. How and where would she claim this on he taxes? Would this affect her Social Security, she is 68 years old?

[marroquinjane]

I would like to claim the child care credit on our taxes but don't want to affect my mom's income in any way.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

You cannot claim the child care credit on your taxes without affecting mom's income tax.

If you claim the credit, she will have to claim the income. It will not reduce her SS payments, since she is at full retirement age. 

If she has no other income, she may not owe any tax. That depends on whether she sat in your house or hers. If she babysat in your home, she is a household employee. Because she is your parent, she is exempt from paying social security and medicare tax, as a household employee. 

If she sat in her house, she is considered self employed and must pay social security and medicare tax in the form of self employment tax

[marroquinjane]

How and where on TurboTax forms would she put that information if she babysits at my house?

[macuser_22]

It is under Less common income,
Miscellaneous Income,
Other income not reported on a W-2,

The easiest way to get there is to use the search box for "household employee income".

[Hal_Al]

In TurboTax, enter at:
 Federal Taxes
Click on Wages and Income
Click “I’ll choose what I work on”
Scroll down to Less Common Income
On Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C click the start button
On the next screen click the start button on Other Income not already reported on Form W-2 or Form 1099
Answer Yes on the next screen and continue the interview until it completes. The instructions will say to only enter an amount less than $1900, per employer. She can ignore that because of the parent rule. However, be advised that that can increase the IRS audit risk.

TurboTax puts the amount on line 7 (wages) of form 1040 or 1040A with the notation “HSH”. It is considered earned income.