readmanntax
Level 1

My client is MFS and lives with his spouse.  He receives $5,000 in child care benefits from his employer and I would like to exclude $2,500 of these benefits from income.  I am getting the following critical diagnostic:

"Dependent care credit is not allowed for MFS taxpayer who is not considered unmarried for purposes of the dependent care credit. If the taxpayer should be treated as unmarried for purposes of the credit (see Form 2441 instructions), enter a "1" in "Married filing separate and treated as unmarried" .

I am not trying to claim the credit, only trying to exclude $2,500 in benefits from income.  How do I clear this critical diagnostic to allow for e-signature and e-filing?  Thank you!
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itonewbie
Level 15

You can check off the diagnostic as it's not the credit your client is claiming.

So long as you have all the correct entries made, the exclusion should flow on the return.

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Still an AllStar

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