J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

25.9 Dependent Care Credit Rules for Separated Couples

A married person generally must file a joint return to claim the dependent care credit (25.4), but if you are living apart from your spouse you may claim the credit on a separate return if you meet the following tests:

1. You maintain as your home a household that a qualifying person (25.7) lives in for more than half the year;

2. You furnish over half the cost of maintaining the household for the entire year; and

3. Your spouse was not a member of the household during the last six months of the year.

If you satisfy these tests, you are treated as unmarried and may claim the credit on a separate return. You do not have to take your spouse’s income into account or show that he or she is employed in order to claim a credit.

Your child may be your qualifying person for purposes of a 2012 credit even if you cannot claim the child as your dependent under the rules at 21.7. This favorable rule applies if: you are legally divorced or separated, separated under a written agreement, or you lived apart from your spouse during the last six months of 2012; you or you and the other parent had custody of the child for more than half the year and provided more than half of the child’s support; and you are the custodial parent (lived with the child longer than the other parent). If these tests are met, you may claim the credit for care of a dependent child who is under age 13 or physically or mentally incapable of caring for himself or ...