<prompt> Human: My wife and I make 300k combined with two toddlers not school just yet. We have opted to pay her parents 1700month to take care of the girls while we work. I work three days36 hours a week and she works close to 50, from my research 1700 is fair market for in home daycare in our area large city in south Texas for two children. Weve been paying them with checks alternating months between FIL and MIL so we stay below 15k annual gift limit per person because they just want to be done with taxes My question is, how much are we losing out by not claiming that cost? Also taking into consideration she could start a business and pay each of them 10k and they still wouldnt have to mess with taxes because they made so little?I think we need a CPA.  <response>: I think you need a CPA. 