Babysitting as a Charitable Donation

If you’re a parent and you use a babysitter or daycare provider to care for your child while you are at work, that’s a deductible expense. In general, both parents must work, or one must be disabled or in college in order to qualify. But did you know that hiring a babysitter to care for your child while you are performing charity work counts as a charitable donation? I didn’t until recently. In fact, if you read the IRS regulations, it’s pretty clear that it’s not allowed.

But, according to Kiplinger.com—the IRS lost a case in Tax Court trying to uphold that rule. The difference is, in this instance, you claim the child care expenses as a charitable donation instead of as a child care expense.

Now, in order to make such a claim, I would recommend that you keep excellent records of the time spent volunteering, the type of work performed, and the charity you worked for. Of course, if you spend two hours a week volunteering, but your child is in daycare for 30 hours a week, you can only deduct for the two hours of time you volunteered.