<prompt> Human: I am a married father of two. My wife has not worked in about four years. Our oldest daughter started preschool, and I notice that this qualifies for the childcare tax credit.I do see that, since my wife clearly stays home with the kids, we are not eligible. In addition to my regular job, I do a little bit of consulting on the side I am a web developer.So my thinking is... if I were to have my wife invoice me a small amount 100 for administrative work relating to my web projects would her having a taxable income enable us to write off preschool?Note: we have joint accounts, and I usually invoice my clients to pay me directly so I can 1099 the income on my tax forms at the end of the year.Thanks in advance for your help.  <response>: In order to claim the credit:You must have paid for the care so that you could work or look for work.It does not sound like this is the case for your wife. And her doing 100 of work clearly doesnt necessitate ongoing preschool. If she actually worked for you consistently while your daughter was at school, that would be one thing. But paying her for work shes not doing in order to claim the child care tax credit would be fraud on a couple of levels. 