To qualify for the child and dependent care credit, you must have a dependent child age 12 or younger, or a dependent of any age who cannot care for himself or herself.

Prerequisites to claim this tax credit: For claiming the child & dependent care credit, you must meet each of following criteria:

• Your daycare provider must meet certain qualifications,
• Your child or dependent must meet certain qualifications,
• You must have earned income,
• With the care provided, you must be able to work or to look for work, and
• You must reduce your eligible daycare expenses by any amount/s provided by a dependent care benefits plan sponsored by your employer.

Now, who is the "Qualifying Child or Dependent"

For the child to be "qualifying", he/she must be your dependent, age 12 or younger. If your child is age 13 or older, the child must be physically or mentally unable to care for himself/herself. You can also claim adult daycare expenses for a dependent age 13 or older/for a spouse, if that person is physically or mentally unable to care for himself/ herself. Other qualifying criteria include that you must provide a home for the dependent, and pay over half the costs of maintaining a home for your dependent. You cannot claim childcare or adult daycare expenses for someone who does not live with you.generally, the child must also be your dependent & If the child is not your dependent just because you allow the non-custodial parent to claim the child as a dependent, then you may be able to claim the child care credit even though you aren't claiming the child as your dependent. Only the custodial parent can take the child care credit, however.

Amount of Child & Dependent care credit:

1. The credit can be up to 35 percent of your qualifying expenses, depending upon your adjusted gross income.
2. For 2010, you may use up to $3,000 of expenses paid in a year for one qualifying individual or $6,000 for two or more qualifying individuals to figure the credit.

Remember, the child & the dependent care credit are "CREDITS" so they are a dollar for dollar deduction from the amount of TAX. So you can expect a bigger refund with these credits.