Should my daughter that went to day camp in summer 2022 and was age 12 at the time be excluded from the child or dependent credit since she turned 13 by December 2022? (2024)

• TurboTax Premier Online

‎September 27, 20235:41 PM

Turbotax is wrong based on IRS PUB 503 because age is determined at the time services were performed. However, there are other requirement which must be met. Review PUB 503 flowchart on page 5

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p503.pdf

if you qualify and properly answered all the questions then it's a Turbotax bug which only Turbotax can fix.

IRS REG 1.21-1(a)(4)

The requirements of section 21 and §§ 1.21–1 through 1.21–4 are applied at the time the services are performed, regardless of when the expenses are paid.

Who Is a Qualifying Person?
Your child and dependent care expenses must be for thecare of one or more qualifying persons.
A qualifying person is:
1. Your qualifying child who is your dependent and whowas under age 13 when the care was provided

You are supposed to be able to claim the child care credit for the cost of the day camp as long as your daughter was under 13 when she was in camp. This is a known bug in TurboTax. It has been reported. I don't have any information about when or whether it will be fixed.

If you use the CD/Download TurboTax software instead of TurboTax Online you can work around the problem by entering the child care expenses in forms mode instead of in the question-and-answer interview. There is no forms mode in TurboTax Online.

If you want to switch from TurboTax Online to the CD/Download TurboTax software see the following FAQ for instructions.

How do I switch from TurboTax Online to TurboTax CD/Download?

Once you have your tax return open in the CD/Download software, go to forms mode and open the Dependent and Nondependent Information Worksheet for your daughter. Scroll down to Part III - Dependent Care Expenses. Enter the camp expenses on the first line in Part III, "Qualified child or dependent care expenses incurred and paid in 2022." Then you can return to the Step-by-Step interview and complete the interview for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. You will then get the credit.

I did a work around this by:

- Go to your child profile, and change the year of date of birth, so that the child is calculated as 12 year old or younger

- then proceed with your dependent care worksheet

- the software should now be calculating the child with all the steps with no pushback on child being 13

- Save, and then go back to your child profile and correct the date of birth to the correct year of birth

This should now reflect your proper reporting.