Eligible child care expenses and who can claim in form T778?
Child care expenses are amounts you or another person paid to have someone look after an eligible child so that you or the other person could:
- earn income from employment;
- carry on a business either alone or as an active partner;
- attend school under the conditions identified under Educational program; or
- carry on research or similar work, for which you or the other person received a grant.
The child must have lived with you or the other person when the expense was incurred for the expense to qualify.
Typically, the person with the lower income in a couple should claim the child care expense by filling out Form T778.
If there's a validation error related to T778 on a coupled return, it's likely because the option "If you are the person with the higher net income, go to part C..." on page 1 of T778 wasn't checked by the higher-income spouse. To resolve this, select this checkbox to adjust line 9 and correct the error, see the screenshot below:
