While every parent is entitled to the child tax benefit, you may do better by claiming the childcare tax credit, depending on what your family income is. The caveat, is that you can’t have both, so work them out with your tax preparer and take the higher deduction to defray your childcare costs.
Depending on your state law, and whether your employer participates, there is also a plan where you can have childcare expenses deducted directly from your salary before taxes are levied. This means less tax on the balance of your pay.
For daycare, you can often save money by using in-home licensed daycares, sharing a nanny with other parents or just shopping around. But realize sometimes you do get what you pay for and going cheap when it comes to your precious ones isn’t always the way to go.
For childcare outside of work hours, build a network of families with children of the same ages if possible, and swap childcare services. One family may get the kids after school, while you take them for a weekend in return. You can even set up a weekend rotation amongst four households,
so that each set of parents gets one Saturday night a month to themselves.
