Dependent Care Flex Accounts
Janet
124 Posts
I participate in a dependent care account through my husband's employer. During the last open enrollment, we submitted the amount we wanted taken from each paycheck, based on our (then) current knowledge of our child care needs for the year(including after-school care and summer care). Now my mother has offered to care for the kids over the summer. This would greatly reduce the amount we'd need to "flex" for the year. In reading the regs, I'm unclear as to whether a change such as this would allow me to change our election amount. Does anyone have any knowledge about this? Thanks!
Comments
Good Luck!
While I sympathize with your change of circumstances, you should not be permitted to change your deduction amount for only the reason you state. The law requires a "qualifying condition" to occur and unless you're also experienceing one of these conditions (eg. marriage, divorce, etc...) Dependent care deductions can be changed (increased or decreased) if you change providers, but that's probably not part of what you're having to deal with. Now, if your Mother becomes a bona-fide provider of child care services........