2025 Child and Dependent Care Credit
For 2025, the Child and Dependent Care Credit is 35% (Maximum rate), $3,000 (Expense limit, one person) and $6,000 (Expense limit, two or more people).
Effective 2025-01-01Source: Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)Verified 2026-08-28
Compared with 2024
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2024.
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum rate | 35% | 35% | +0% (+0.0%) |
| Expense limit, one person | $3,000 | $3,000 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Expense limit, two or more people | $6,000 | $6,000 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
The credit is for a person who pays for the care of a qualifying person so that they, and their spouse if filing jointly, can work or look for work. A qualifying person is your dependent child who was under age 13 when the care was provided, your spouse who was not physically or mentally able to care for themselves and lived with you for more than half the year, or another person unable to care for themselves who lived with you for more than half the year and either was your dependent or would have been but for their gross income, a joint return, or your own dependent status. You and your spouse must have earned income during the year, the payments cannot go to your spouse, to someone you can claim as a dependent, to your own child who was under age 19 at the end of the year, or to the parent of your qualifying child, and you must identify the care provider on your return. Married couples generally must file jointly, though a spouse who is legally separated or living apart under the conditions in Publication 503 can still claim it.
What changed this year, and why
For 2025 the credit for child and dependent care expenses can be as much as 35% of your work-related expenses, and the expenses you are allowed to count are capped at $3,000 if you had one qualifying person, with a higher cap where you had two or more. Publication 503 reports no change to the rate or to the dollar limits for the year. Its What's New item covers a new type of account for certain children and the form used to elect it, which has nothing to do with the care credit. The 35% rate is the top of a sliding scale: the percentage that actually applies to you depends on your adjusted gross income and steps down as that income rises. The credit remains limited to your tax, with no refund of any excess.
Common questions
- How much is the child and dependent care credit for 2025?
- The credit is a percentage of your work-related care expenses, and that percentage can be as much as 35%. The expenses you can run through it are capped at $3,000 if you had one qualifying person, and at a higher amount if you had two or more. Your expenses are also capped by your earned income. The credit is limited to your tax, so you cannot get a refund for any part above what you owe.
- Who is a qualifying person for the child and dependent care credit?
- Your qualifying child who is your dependent and was under age 13 when the care was provided, your spouse who was not physically or mentally able to care for themselves and lived with you more than half the year, or another person unable to care for themselves who lived with you more than half the year and was your dependent, or would have been except for their gross income, a joint return they filed, or your being claimable as someone else's dependent.
- Why is my dependent care credit less than 35% of what I paid?
- The percentage depends on your adjusted gross income. Publication 503 sets out a table in which 35% applies at the lowest income band and the percentage steps down as adjusted gross income rises, flattening out at a floor rate that applies to everyone above the top band. Other limits sit on top of that as well: the cap on countable expenses, and the earned income limit, which caps expenses at your earned income or the smaller of yours and your spouse's.
- What counts as a work-related care expense?
- Expenses are work related only if they allow you, or your spouse if filing jointly, to work or look for work, and only if they are for a qualifying person's care. Day camp can count, overnight camp cannot. Nursery school and preschool count as care, but kindergarten and higher grades do not, though before-school and after-school care for those children can. Household services count where they are partly for the care of a qualifying person.
- Can I claim the dependent care credit if I am married filing separately?
- Generally married couples must file a joint return, but Publication 503 gives two routes. If you are legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance, you are not considered married. If you are living apart, you can claim the credit when you file apart from your spouse, your home is the home of a qualifying person for more than half the year, you pay more than half the cost of keeping it up, and your spouse did not live there for the last months of the year.
- Do I need my daycare provider's tax ID to claim the credit?
- Yes. You must identify every person or organization that provided care by name, address, and taxpayer identification number, which is an SSN or ITIN for an individual and an employer identification number for an organization. For a tax-exempt provider such as a church or school you enter Tax-Exempt instead of a number. If a provider refuses to supply the information, report what you have, attach a statement, and show that you used due diligence.
- How do employer dependent care benefits affect the credit?
- Benefits you exclude or deduct are not counted as work-related expenses and they reduce the dollar limit that applies to you, which is figured on Form 2441. To claim any credit at all, the total you exclude or deduct has to be less than the dollar limit for your situation, $3,000 with one qualifying person and more with two or more. With two or more qualifying persons the exclusion is always below the limit, because the amount excludable is itself capped lower.
- What is the earned income limit for the dependent care credit?
- The expenses you use to figure the credit cannot exceed your earned income if you are single at the end of the year, or the smaller of your and your spouse's earned income if you are married. A spouse who is a full-time student or not able to care for themselves is treated as having a set minimum earned income for each such month, with a higher deemed figure where there are two or more qualifying persons.
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The Dependent care expense headroom takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
The credit cannot exceed what you earned
This rule caps the work-related expenses you can use to calculate the credit at your earned income for the year. If you are single at the end of the year, your credit cannot be based on expenses exceeding what you earned. If you are married at year-end, the limit is the smaller of your earned income or your spouse's earned income. For married couples, the spouse's full-year earned income is used even if the marriage lasted only part of the year. The verified expense limit of $3,000 for one qualifying person still applies, but the earned income limit may further restrict the amount of expenses eligible for the credit.
Earned Income Limit The amount of work-related expenses you use to figure your credit can't be more than: 1. Your earned income for the year if you are single at the end of the year, or 2. The smaller of your or your spouse's earned income for the year if you are married at the end of the year.
Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)
The exception for a student or disabled spouse
When one spouse is a full-time student or is physically or mentally unable to care for themselves, the IRS treats that spouse as having earned income for purposes of the credit, even if the spouse had no actual wages. The rule applies to any month during which the spouse meets either condition and also lives with the taxpayer for more than half the year. If the couple files jointly, the same rule applies in reverse to the working spouse. Only one spouse may be treated as having this deemed earned income for any given month; if both spouses are students or disabled in the same month, only one of them can use the rule for that month. A full-time student is someone enrolled at a school for the hours or classes the school considers full-time, and must have been enrolled for some part of each of five calendar months during the year. The deemed earned income is then figured at a specific monthly rate set by the IRS and used in place of actual wages when applying the earned income limit.
Rule for student-spouse or spouse not able to care for self. Your spouse is treated as having earned income for any month that they are: 1. A full-time student, or 2. Physically or mentally not able to care for themselves. (Your spouse must also live with you for more than half the year.)
Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)
Married couples generally must file jointly
This is the fifth of the tests that must be met to claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit. A taxpayer's filing status may be single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse. If the taxpayer is married at the end of the year, the general rule is that the couple must file a joint return to claim the credit. Exceptions exist for certain married taxpayers who live apart from their spouse or who qualify under special rules for spouses who are missing or incapacitated. Those exceptions are addressed separately under the filing-status discussion in the publication. Married taxpayers who file separately generally cannot claim the credit, even if they otherwise meet every other test. The joint-return requirement is applied alongside the other tests, including the qualifying-person test, the work-related-expense test, and the provider-identification test, all of which must also be satisfied before any credit is allowed.
5. Joint Return Test. Your filing status may be single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse. If you are married, you must file a joint return, unless an exception applies to you.
Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)
You must name the provider, or show due diligence
Every care provider whose services are being claimed must be identified on the taxpayer's return. The information is reported on Form 2441, Part I, and must include the provider's name, address, and taxpayer identification number. For an individual provider, the identification number is a social security number or individual taxpayer identification number. For an organization, it is the employer identification number. If the provider is a tax-exempt organization such as a church or school, the identification number is not required; instead the taxpayer enters "Tax-Exempt" in the space on the form where the number is requested. A taxpayer who cannot supply complete or correct information must be able to show that due diligence was used in trying to obtain it. If no care providers were used and Form 2441 is being filed only to report taxable dependent care benefits in Part III, the taxpayer enters "none" on line 1, column (a).
Care Provider Identification Test You must identify all persons or organizations that provide care for your child or dependent. Use Form 2441, Part I, to show the information.
Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)
Employer benefits shrink the expense limit
When a taxpayer receives dependent care benefits through an employer plan and excludes or deducts those benefits from income, the dollar limit used to figure the credit must be reduced by the amount of the benefit. The reduced dollar limit is calculated on Form 2441, Part III. The starting limit depends on the number of qualifying persons. The excluded or deducted benefit amount is subtracted from that starting limit, and the result is the maximum amount of work-related expenses that can be used to compute the credit. For instance, a taxpayer with one qualifying person whose starting limit is $3,000 and who excluded some employer-paid dependent care benefits from income must subtract those benefits from $3,000 before determining eligible expenses. If the excluded benefits equal or exceed the starting limit, no expenses remain to figure a credit. The reduction prevents a double benefit: the taxpayer cannot both exclude the employer benefit from income and also claim a credit on the same dollar amount. This rule applies whether the benefits come from a dependent care flexible spending account or another employer-sponsored plan.
Reduced Dollar Limit If you received dependent care benefits that you exclude or deduct from your income, you must subtract that amount from the dollar limit that applies to you.
Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses (IRS)
- Maximum rate
The credit can be up to 35% of your employ-
- Expense limit, one person
This limit is $3,000 if you had one qualifying person, or $6,000 if you had two or more qualifying persons.
- Expense limit, two or more people
The maximum amount of work-related expenses you can take into account for purposes of the credit is $6,000 if you have two or more qualifying persons even if you only incurred expenses for just one of them.