Dependent Care/Divorced parents

[Guest janmin]

Have situation where father is custodial parent who pays all child care expenses. Under court order, child spent 7 weeks with mother this summer.

Can father change his election to reduce because he had no child care expenses for 7 weeks???

[oriecat]

I think so. Change of Provider is a qualifying reason.

[JDuns]

Careful though, if the child is back with the original provider, it is hard to argue now that a change in status now is justifiable.

[oriecat]

Good point, I missed the fact that this already happened. Change of status needs to occur within 30 days of the event.

[jsb]

If the father sets his deduction amount based on total expected annual child care expenses (with the summer break factored in) then there would be no need to change the election to allow for the mother's visitation time. I would agree, however, that an election change could probably be allowed on a prospective basis based on the change in care provider.