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Working or Looking for Work: Child and Dependent Care Tax Benefits (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Working or Looking for Work” within child and dependent care tax benefits. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 503 (2025), Child and Dependent Care Expenses, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

Child and dependent care expenses must be work related to qualify for the credit. Expenses are considered work related only if both of the following are true.

  • They allow you (or your spouse if filing jointly) to work or look for work.

  • They are for a qualifying person's care.

Working or Looking for Work

To be work related, your expenses must allow you to work or look for work. If you are married, you or your spouse must work or look for work. Note, however, that employment-related expenses are limited to the lower of the earned income of you or your spouse. If you or your spouse was a full-time student or disabled, see Rule for student-spouse or spouse not able to care for self, earlier.

Your work can be for others or in your own business or partnership. It can be either full-time or part-time and it can be either in or out of your home.

Work also includes actively looking for work. However, if you don't find a job and have no earned income for the year, you can't take this credit. See You Must Have Earned Income, earlier.

An expense isn't considered work related merely because you had it while you were working. The purpose of the expense must be to allow you to work. Whether your expenses allow you to work or look for work depends on the facts.

Example 1.

The cost of a babysitter while you and your spouse go out to eat isn't normally a work-related expense.

Example 2.

You work during the day. Your spouse works at night and sleeps during the day. You pay for care of your 5-year-old child during the hours when you are working and your spouse is sleeping. Your expenses are considered work related.

Volunteer work.

For this purpose, you aren't considered to be working if you do unpaid volunteer work or work for a nominal salary.

Work for part of year.

If you work or actively look for work during only part of the period covered by the expenses, then you must figure your expenses for each day. For example, if you work all year and pay care expenses of $250 a month ($3,000 for the year), all the expenses are work related. However, if you work or look for work for only 2 months and 15 days during the year and pay expenses of $250 a month, your work-related expenses are limited to $625 (2½ months × $250).

Temporary absence from work.

You don't have to figure your expenses for each day during a short, temporary absence from work, such as for vacation or a minor illness, if you have to pay for care anyway. Instead, you can figure your credit including the expenses you paid for the period of absence.

An absence of 2 weeks or less is a short, temporary absence. An absence of more than 2 weeks may be considered a short, temporary absence, depending on the circumstances.

Example 1.

You pay a dependent care center, which complies with all state and local regulations, to care for your 2-year-old daughter so you can work full-time. The center requires payment for days when a child is absent. You take 8 days off from work as vacation days. Because the absence is less than 2 consecutive calendar weeks, your absence is a short, temporary absence. You aren't required to allocate expenses between days worked and days not worked. The entire fee for the period that includes the 8 vacation days may be a work-related expense.

Example 2.

You pay a nanny to care for your 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter so you can work. You become ill and miss 4 months of work but receive sick pay. You continue to pay the nanny to care for the children while you are ill. Your absence isn't a short, temporary absence, and your expenses aren't considered work related.

Part-time work.

If you work part-time, you must generally figure your expenses for each day. However, if you are required to pay for care weekly, monthly, or in another way that includes both days worked and days not worked, you can figure your credit including the expenses you paid for days you didn't work. Any day when you work at least 1 hour is a day of work.

Example 1.

You work 3 days a week. While you work, your 6-year-old child attends a dependent care center, which complies with all state and local regulations. You can pay the center $150 for any 3 days a week or $250 for 5 days a week. Your child attends the center 5 days a week. You must allocate your expenses for dependent care between days worked and days not worked; your work-related expenses are limited to $150 a week.

Example 2.

The facts are the same as in Example 1, except the center doesn't offer a 3-day option. The entire $250 weekly fee may be a work-related expense.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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