A mother cannot be entitled to the tax credit for childcare expenses because the young girl from the Department of Youth Protection (DYP) whom she has taken under her wing is “invisible to the tax”. In a letter, she calls for help from the government of François Legault.
Three-year-old Charlie, whose real name has been withheld to protect his identity, is from the youth protection system. At the beginning of 2022, she ended up in a foster family through the mixed bank of the DPJ, which makes her a candidate for adoption.
“Very fragile” and suffering from “great anxiety”, the little one was entrusted to a private daycare last year. The lady who has cared for him for nearly a year and a half — and whose name has been withheld to avoid identifying Charlie — wanted to offer him all the support necessary for his development.
“It is important that foster families and biological parents can choose the best daycare based on the needs of the child, and not their budget,” she wrote in a missive sent to the office of the Prime Minister, François Legault. .
By sending the little girl to the same daycare as her biological son, the mother of the family, whom we will call Louise, believes she has made a decision that is bearing fruit today. “Charlie has made tremendous progress since coming to my house! Her hair has grown, she has gained color and weight, she counts, talks and sings! She knows her alphabet and is even beginning to read! It is largely thanks to the daycare and its educator that she is doing so well, ”she says in her letter.
$9400 extra
At the end of last year, Louise asked to receive the tax documents necessary to obtain tax credits for childcare expenses. As she had done with her son a few years before.
“Of course, I knew that I was going to pay costs that were higher than a subsidized daycare. But I was basing my budget on my own experience as a biological parent, where I was able to deduct my son’s daycare costs. I took it for granted that it was going to be the same situation for Charlie, ”she explains in an interview with The duty.
In December, she received a response from Revenu Québec. Since she is not related to Charlie, she is not eligible for these deductions. Same thing, for example, for day camp fees.
Sending the little one to daycare therefore costs her $16,900 a year. “With the deduction, that would cost me about $28.70 a day. I would save $9,400 a year,” Louise calculates.
The lady agrees that she made this choice consciously, and that she could very well have sent Charlie to a subsidized daycare center or an early childhood centre. “All daycares do their best, and there are amazing people in all daycares, I’m sure. But right now, for Charlie, it’s a really, really good place. […] Especially since changing her place, for her, it would be dramatic, ”she argues.
“According to the conditions”
Contacted by The dutyRevenu Québec indicated that “depending on the conditions specific to each situation, a foster parent could benefit [du crédit d’impôt sur les frais de garde] when filing their income tax return. However, the parent must be “in charge” of the child.
According to the president of the Federation of Foster Families and Intermediate Resources of Quebec (FFARIQ), Geneviève Rioux, these criteria automatically exclude a host of people in the adoption process with the DYP. “In terms of taxes, it’s really the parents who are entitled to it. This is a difficulty at the legislative level. We’ve been working on it for a good five years,” she says.
According to Mme Rioux, the youth centers do not reimburse these sums, “except under certain conditions”. For example, in the case of heavy needs. Monday evening, the Ministry of Health and Social Services told us by email that they were not aware of such situations.
“When a daycare becomes our need, for us as a foster family, then it’s our personal choice. So it’s up to us to pay,” says M.me Rioux. “That is not right. »
The president of the FFARIQ also notes that some foster parents have no choice but to turn to private establishments, given the shortage of places in childcare services in Quebec.
In her letter addressed to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, Louise launches a heartfelt cry: “the childcare costs in the Mixed Bank program should be tax deductible for the person who pays them “, she says.
“I think it would be in order, then it would be possible to make policy changes relatively quickly, while waiting for a law to be changed definitively,” she concludes.