Why isn’t childcare a business expense?

[Anonymous]

I’m just setting up payment for a new nanny. I withhold taxes, so I pay her taxes on my already post-tax dollars. It drives me kind of crazy.
If you have two working parents or you are a single parent, you more or less need childcare to work. How is this not a business expense and tax-deductible?

I guess that you could argue that you could get away with not having childcare, but you can also work from home and get away with not having a home office. Yet the home office is tax-deductible.
And you could say that it’s a cost of living expense like food or rent, but it really isn’t. It’s an expense that I have because I am working.

I just feel like the tax code is designed to penalize two income households.

[Anonymous]

Because ideally women should stay home barefoot and pregnant.

[Anonymous]

I think it's because having children is not a requirement for your job.

[Anonymous]

It is not optional for most people. It should be deductible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because having children is not a requirement for your job.

This is the answer. Children are a personal choice unrelated to employment. Childcare is no different than other personal nondeductible expenses which make it easier for people to work, like a home closer to your place of employment, a car to commute in, clothes to wear to work (if not a required uniform), a watch make sure you arrive at work on time, etc. Those are all personal, not business expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because having children is not a requirement for your job.

This is the answer. Children are a personal choice unrelated to employment. Childcare is no different than other personal nondeductible expenses which make it easier for people to work, like a home closer to your place of employment, a car to commute in, clothes to wear to work (if not a required uniform), a watch make sure you arrive at work on time, etc. Those are all personal, not business expenses.

This. Some people choose to travel to work by car. That doesn’t make their car a work expense (aside from those who actually use the car for work purposes.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because having children is not a requirement for your job.

It’s this dear.

OP must be a millennial to ask such a question.

[Anonymous]

Look into the childcare FSA for pre-tax childcare funds. It’s not a huge amount but it’s something child free people don’t get.

[Anonymous]

They want to reduce global populations, not enable them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because having children is not a requirement for your job.

It’s this dear.

OP must be a millennial to ask such a question.

+1 SMH.

We're all doomed.

[Anonymous]

What "business" are you operating that you would deduct such expenses?

[Anonymous]

Are you for real?

[Anonymous]

You can deduct your child modeling expenses.

[Anonymous]

I mean, there’s an argument to be made that the government should incentivize population growth, so long as resources / infra can be sustained accordingly.

I get where OP is coming from.

[Anonymous]

(Satire) I know, let us have the government setup and manage subsidized child care, as in Sweden. That would work really well in a large diverse country like the USA.