Total Income issue

[Mary1692]

After placing our W-2's into TurboTax, the total of the two is 69,332, but the total income is showing 73,380 - I've checked and triple checked, I've even started the return multiple times, but it keeps coming up with more income than is on the W-2's

[xmasbaby0]

Did anyone have any scholarship money?

[Mary1692]

No, we had childcare.  but our brother and sister in law also have the same situation and none of their childcare was added...

[xmasbaby0]

Does your W-2 have an amount in box 10  for childcare on it?   Did you pay less for childcare than the amount shown on the W-2?   If so, part of that was added back in as taxable income.

[Mary1692]

Yes, it's in Box 10 as is our brother and sister in law's.  What was listed on the W-2 was the actual amount paid.  The total income has not changed on theirs, but ours changed by $4,048 more.  And my question would now be why, I guess?

[xmasbaby0]

Did you go to the childcare credit section and enter the amount paid for childcare there?   Check your entries there.  Go to Federal>Deductions and Credits>You and Your Family>Child and Dependent Care Credit

And....in order to get the childcare credit you must show income from both parents on a joint return.   If one of you is self-employed and showed a loss, you cannot get the credit.   Make sure income is entered under both spouse's names if you entered W-2's.  Some people make the mistake of putting it all under one name.

[Mary1692]

It is a joint return, and both of us are listed with the childcare credit.  However, I will go back and look.  

[Mary1692]

It is also not on one W-2, but equally distributed on both as our employer did it.

[Mary1692]

We both also receive W-2's from the same company.  I checked the entries, and everything seems to be correct.

[xmasbaby0]

So----each of your W-2's has the same amount in box 10?  Each of you has more than $4000 in box 10?   And did you actually pay over $8000 for childcare?

[Mary1692]

This is correct.

Yes, we each had $8,698.50 in Box 10

[xmasbaby0]

Wait---what?   So did you actually pay over $17K for childcare?   For how many children?

[Mary1692]

2 children.

[xmasbaby0]

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/credits-and-deductions/help/what-is-the-child-and-dependent-care-c...

[xmasbaby0]

So----the amount you can get for the credit is calculated based on your AGI and is only up to $8000 per child.   It seems like maybe your credit was limited by your AGI, which caused some of the amount from box 10 to be added back as taxable income.

@Critter-3  ?       @ErnieSO  ?