Child and dependent care

I'm curious about what others do. Do you take after school soccer and piano lessons? Of course, client doesn't have EINs which is usually a give-away. I did a little research but not much came up.

Do you take after school soccer and piano lessons?. It's safe to say that all of us are way past that stage.

Pub 503: "Expenses are for the care of a qualifying person only if their main purpose is the person's well-being and protection." Also, "An expense isn't considered work-related merely because you had it while you were working. The purpose of the expense must be to allow you to work. Whether your expenses allow you to work or look for work depends on the facts." [emphasis added]

If the parent(s) are working five days a week, are the soccer/piano lessons received every workday? If not, then they would not appear to be for the purpose of allowing the parent(s) to work, IMO.

There is a lot of room for interpretation, if you read more details in the Pub. As for the EIN, use Form W-10 and document due diligence if EIN not available.

It's pretty rare in my experience that anyone with legitimate work-related day-care has a problem reaching a minimum of $3K or getting an EIN from the provider.