Childcare deductions with part-time work

[backontrack]

I hadn’t thought of this until it came up on a mom’s board. DD is in preschool three mornings a week. In 2010 DH worked 2 of those 3 mornings for most of the year and I was working FT. The preschool does provide a tax id number and statement for us. Should I deduct that on my taxes as childcare? I suppose I’ll have to prorate it based on him only working 2/3 of her school time and to take into account the times he wasn’t working. Turbo tax may guide us, but I wanted an idea on whether our situation “counted.”

[taxref]

The dependent care credit is available in your circumstances. As you suspected, only the portion of child care paid while both of you were working (in your case about 2/3) counts toward the credit.

As a clarification, you do not deduct dependent care. Rather, complete Form 2441. The resulting answer is taken as a credit on page 2 of your 1040.

[backontrack]

Thank you!

[nancy65]

If, in addition to working 2 mornings a week, your husband was also looking for additional work, you might be able to use the full amount toward the credit. That's what he was doing the other morinig, right?
The credit is available for child care which allows both of you to work or look for work.

[mwcpa]

here is a link to the instruction for form 2441, the form that is used to claim the tax credit related to qualified child care costs

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2441.pdf