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I am a stay-at-home mother to two children.  I have worked on and off part-time.  I am baffled every year by the tax code.  You can deduct the cost of child care if you work, but there’s no benefit if you take time off to watch your child(ren).  For our family, the cost of child care more than cancels out income I could get (especially when considering travel, clothing, etc.).  It seems like it would make sense to allow stay-at-home caregivers (for elderly/disabled people included) to at least get some sort of tax credit for child/dependent care that would be equal to deductible child care costs when provided by someone else.  Perhaps this would be a way to help in place of/as a supplement to the proposal for paid leave.

 

Just a thought,

 

Cara

 

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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