| Pub. 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses |
2005 Tax Year |
Publication 503 - Introductory Material
Keeping up home test eliminated. Generally, you no longer need to pay over half the cost of keeping up a home for a qualifying person. However, the qualifying
person must live with
you for more than half of 2005. See Qualifying Person Test for more information.
Qualifying person. To be your qualifying person, a child generally must be your “qualifying child.” See Qualifying Person Test.
Hurricane Katrina. The special rule for a spouse who is a full-time student may still apply if he or she was unable to attend classes because
of Hurricane Katrina.
See Rule for student-spouse or spouse not able to care for self.
Taxpayer identification number needed for each qualifying person. You must include on line 2 of Form 2441, Child and Dependent Care Expenses, or Schedule 2 (Form 1040A), Child and Dependent
Care Expenses for Form
1040A Filers, the name and taxpayer identification number (generally the social security number) of each qualifying person.
See Taxpayer
identification number under Qualifying Person Test, later.
You may have to pay employment taxes. If you pay someone to come to your home and care for your dependent or spouse, you may be a household employer who has to
pay employment taxes.
Usually, you are not a household employer if the person who cares for your dependent or spouse does so at his or her home
or place of business. See
Employment Taxes for Household Employers, later.
Photographs of missing children. The Internal Revenue Service is a proud partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Photographs of
missing children
selected by the Center may appear in this publication on pages that would otherwise be blank. You can help bring these children
home by looking at the
photographs and calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) if you recognize a child.
This publication explains the tests you must meet to claim the credit for child and dependent care expenses. It explains how
to figure and claim
the credit.
You may be able to claim the credit if you pay someone to care for your dependent who is under age 13 or for your spouse or
dependent who is not
able to care for himself or herself. The credit can be up to 35% of your expenses. To qualify, you must pay these expenses
so you can work or look for
work.
This publication also discusses some of the employment tax rules for household employers.
Dependent care benefits.
If you received any dependent care benefits from your employer during the year, you may be able to exclude from your
income all or part of them.
You must complete Part III of Form 2441 or Schedule 2 (Form 1040A) before you can figure the amount of your credit. See Dependent Care Benefits
under How To Figure the Credit, later.
Comments and suggestions.
We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions.
You can write to us at the following address:
Internal Revenue Service
Individual Forms and Publications Branch
SE:W:CAR:MP:T:I
1111 Constitution Ave. NW, IR-6406
Washington, DC 20224
We respond to many letters by telephone. Therefore, it would be helpful if you would include your daytime phone number,
including the area code, in
your correspondence.
You can email us at
*[email protected]. (The asterisk must be included in the
address.) Please put “ Publications Comment” on the subject line. Although we cannot respond individually to each email, we do appreciate your
feedback and will consider your comments as we revise our tax products.
Tax questions.
If you have a tax question, visit
www.irs.gov or call 1-800-829-1040. We cannot answer tax questions at either
of the addresses listed above.
Ordering forms and publications.
Visit
www.irs.gov/formspubs to download forms and publications, call 1-800-829-3676, or write to the National Distribution Center at the
address shown under How To Get Tax Help in the back of this publication.
Useful Items - You may want to see:
Publication
-
501
Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information
-
926
Household Employer's Tax Guide
Form (and Instructions)
-
2441
Child and Dependent Care Expenses
-
Schedule 2 (Form 1040A)
Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040A Filers
-
Schedule H (Form 1040)
Household Employment Taxes
-
W-10
Dependent Care Provider's Identification and Certification
See How To Get Tax Help, near the end of this publication, for information about getting these publications and forms.
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