Child Care Expenses
Child Care Expenses
What are Child Care Expenses?
Child care expenses are amounts you paid to have someone look after an eligible child so that you could:
- earn income from employment;
- carry on a business;
- attend school; or
- carry on research or similar work, for which you received a grant.
Child Care Expenses Eligible for Deduction
- caregivers providing child care services;
- day nursery schools and daycare centres;
- educational institutions, for the part of the fees that relate to child care services;
- day camps and day sports schools where the primary goal of the camp is to care for children (an institution offering a sports study program is not a sports school); or
- boarding schools, overnight sports schools, or camps where lodging is involved
Who is an Eligible Child?
- The child for whom the expenses were paid for must be 16 years or less in the tax year
- The child must be either
- Your child or your spouse’s child; or
- A child who is dependent on you or your spouse; and this child must have income less than the basic personal credit ($11,635)
The deduction amount and who claims it?
Lower income spouse deducts the MINIMUM of:
- Amount of child care expenses
- 2/3 * earned income of the lower income spouse
- $ 8,000 per child <7
$ 5,000 per child>7 but less than 16 years
$ 11,000 per for a child of any age eligible for the disability credit
Earned income=
employment income with benefits (no deductions)
+Business income (no losses)
+scholarships+research grants
The lower income spouse (or common law partner) claims this expense; unless the parent is a single parent.