Get the free instructions form 2441 2017-2018

Welcome to forum 24:41 child and dependent care expenses this forum is in did you an opportunity to be able to take a tax credit based on what you spent for daycare or dependent care if you have a sick parent or family member at home so even if you bring someone into your house to babysit your child if you pay them you have an opportunity to get a credit for that for part of that expense okay let's walk through the form first thing is on the starred you need to put the name your name as shown on your return and usually that's always going to be the primary tax payer so if you're married whoever you put first on the 1040 on the front page would go here along with their social security number part one is really important you need to report who you paid for the care and the reason is is because the IRS will go back to that person or business and make sure they're claiming the income that you paid them so you have to include their identifying number whether it's a social security number for an individual or an employee identification number if it's a business and then how much you paid them in this next section did you receive dependent care benefits this has to do with if your employer withheld pre-tax dollars to help you pay for your dependent care we are going to be looking at this today but if you did then you'll complete part three on the back if you didn't all you have to do is complete part two which is what we're going to look at today so many people that have children incur some sort of child care expense and that's what we're going to be exploring part two then discusses your children or your dependents so in here I've entered two dependents say you have a daughter and the son again you have to put their social security number and then how much you paid if you look at the instructions down here below it'll say do not enter more than three thousand dollars for one qualifying person so I may have spent much more than three thousand dollars on Sarah care but I can only enter up to 3000 and then it says or $6,000 for two or more persons so if I had three children and I actually incurred $11,000 in child care I can only have a total of six thousand that I'm able to actually claim for this for this form okay so what I've done is I've put in my maximum to get a total of six thousand and then what this form does is it compares your earned income will say it was twenty five thousand and your spouse's earned income will say that was twenty seven thousand and it compares what you spent to your earned income like your wages so not any interest or dividends or things like that then what it says is take the smallest of lines three four or five so when I'm comparing what I'm doing then is I'm looking at these three numbers and I'm going to only be able to take the smallest and what this does it ensures that people are only getting the credit if they actually work if they have earned income if you spent six thousand dollars and day care expenses and your...