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Add disabled adult dependent care expenses to the CDCC base#8746

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hua7450:cdcc-expense-distribution
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Add disabled adult dependent care expenses to the CDCC base#8746
hua7450 wants to merge 1 commit into
PolicyEngine:mainfrom
hua7450:cdcc-expense-distribution

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@hua7450 hua7450 commented Jun 24, 2026

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Summary

Fixes the original bug behind #8704, as a small, self-contained PR: the Child and Dependent Care Credit drew care expenses only from tax_unit_childcare_expenses, which is child-scoped (children under 18). A disabled adult qualifying individual under IRC § 21 — a dependent or spouse age 18 or older — was therefore attributed $0 of care expenses and received a $0 credit. Because ks_cdcc is a share of the federal credit, Kansas inherited the same gap.

Approach

Rather than broadening the childcare pipeline (which would ripple into ~40 CCDF/state CCAP programs, SNAP/TANF dependent-care deductions, and the DC KCCATC), this routes adult dependent care through a separate, dedicated input and leaves childcare untouched:

  • care_expenses / pre_subsidy_care_expenses (pre-existing, previously-unused person variables) now represent care for a disabled adult dependent or spouse, redefined as YEAR to match the rest of the CDCC chain.
  • cdcc_relevant_expenses adds care_expenses to tax_unit_childcare_expenses before the § 21(c) dollar cap and the earned-income cap: min(childcare + adult care, cdcc_limit, min_head_spouse_earned).
  • The childcare and childcare-subsidy pipeline is unchanged, so child-only programs are unaffected.

Result (TY 2024)

A disabled adult dependent with an earning spouse (so the earned-income test is met), $6,000 of care via care_expenses:

value
tax_unit_childcare_expenses 0 (pipeline untouched)
care_expenses 6,000
cdcc_relevant_expenses 3,000
cdcc 600
ks_cdcc 300

Scope / follow-up

Files

  • variables/household/expense/childcare/care_expenses.py, pre_subsidy_care_expenses.py — YEAR, relabeled for disabled-adult care
  • variables/gov/irs/credits/cdcc/cdcc_relevant_expenses.py — add care_expenses to the base
  • Tests: care_expenses.yaml, cdcc_relevant_expenses.yaml, CDCC integration.yaml, ks_cdcc.yaml

Tests

New cases for care_expenses passthrough, the combined CDCC base, and federal + Kansas end-to-end (12 pass locally). CI runs the full suite.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

@codecov

codecov Bot commented Jun 24, 2026

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Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 100.00%. Comparing base (cf06458) to head (cf199ab).
⚠️ Report is 14 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files
@@            Coverage Diff            @@
##              main     #8746   +/-   ##
=========================================
  Coverage   100.00%   100.00%           
=========================================
  Files            5         3    -2     
  Lines           73        33   -40     
=========================================
- Hits            73        33   -40     
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unittests 100.00% <100.00%> (ø)

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@hua7450 hua7450 force-pushed the cdcc-expense-distribution branch from 65512a6 to 745bf72 Compare June 24, 2026 20:28
@hua7450 hua7450 changed the title Distribute CDCC childcare expenses to disabled dependents and spouses Add disabled adult dependent care expenses to the CDCC base Jun 24, 2026
The Child and Dependent Care Credit drew care expenses only from
tax_unit_childcare_expenses, which is child-scoped (children under 18). A
disabled adult qualifying individual under IRC section 21 — a dependent or
spouse age 18 or older — was therefore attributed $0 of care expenses and
received a $0 credit (and $0 in state mirrors such as Kansas, where
ks_cdcc is a share of the federal credit).

Route adult dependent care through the existing care_expenses input (now
year-defined) and add it to cdcc_relevant_expenses alongside childcare. The
childcare and childcare-subsidy pipeline is left unchanged, so CCDF/state
CCAP programs and the DC KCCATC are unaffected.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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