Child Care Benefit (CCB) Tax Offset
Sunday, March 25th, 2007I want to talk a little about the 30% child care tax rebate that was brought in as a new tax offset last financial year. This offset confuses many people, including some tax preparers.
Approved care is formal child care including:
- Long day care
- Family day care
- In-home care
- Outside school hours care
- Vacation care
- Some occasional care services.
You must meet the following criteria when claiming a CCB.
- The care must be approved and registered. Registered, on its own, is not enough to be eligible for a rebate
- This care does not relate to the last financial year but the year before. i.e. If you are doing your tax return for the financial year from 01/07/2006 - 30/06/2007, then your child care rebate will relate to the year 01/07/2005 - 30/06/2006. (Confusing, isn’t it)
- Parents must either be working, performing voluntary work, looking for work, training or studying
- You can claim up to 50 hours of CCB per child per week.
Registered care is informal care provided by relatives, friends, nannies, some pre-schools and kindergartens and other outside school hours care. These are not always approved care by the Australian Government, so will not entitle you to the rebate.
The care provider must be registered with the Family Assistance Office to enable the you to claim the minimum CCB against the care fees charged.
The Family Assistance Office should be able to advise taxpayers if they are using an approved child care service.
The rebate is 30% of the taxpayers out-of-pocket expenses. Your total child care fees for approved care less the actual CCB entitlement.