Child care maximum

[WCMCFP]

Taxpayer has 2 young children.  Both qualify for child care, but parents only pay for one to go to child care.  Lacerte diagnostic encouraged me to list both children on 2441, so one has a $9,000 dollar amount paid for them and the other one has a zero.  Form 2441 then calculates the maximum for two children of $6,000 even though it shows all the money is paid for only one child.  Is that correct?

[sjrcpa · Accepted solution]

Yes

[WCMCFP]

Thank you - I'd never encountered this before. I appreciate your help.

[sjrcpa]

You're welcome.

[itonewbie]

Yes.

[itonewbie]

Ah, I see that Susan also responded.  Just to add to that, §21 does not correlate the dollar limit with how it's spent on a specific qualifying individual.