Hellobee Boards

@bluestriped bee: yeah, I don't think daycares would legally be allowed to have workers work more than full time, without overtime laws (time and a half), or hiring more people, etc. Plus, they still have the ratios they have to comply with, so it would more likely cause new centers to open.

Obviously with any tax credit or deduction, my question is--what else in the budget will be cut for this? Will overall taxes go up? What level income people will be affected? If only people making more than 750k have slightly higher taxes, well...I personally am okay with that. If everyone has a slight tax bump for this and for paid family leave, and it's a line item that is easily tracked (like I have $10 a paycheck deducted for Family Leave and Childcare), then I'm okay with that. But I would like to see the breakdown, and I don't think either candidate has offered those kinds of specifics.

@Mrs. Carrot: Wait, is there an income cap on her plan? Or are you saying you wouldn't get relief because you pay less than 10%?

@Anagram: Oh I'm sure none of the policies outright say that, but I'm sure there are families at my day care paying more than 10% of their household income. So, if they pay less, the day care has to get that money back somewhere. Either by raising tuition for families that can afford it, or through government subsidies, that would be funded through likely higher taxes for me.

@Truth Bombs: As far as I know, all proposed plans from both parties are through tax credit and deductions, so it isn't likely any daycare will raise tuition for this reason. However, higher taxes could happen. Trump says he'll take away some deductions from "the rich", but I guess we have to wait to see how that is defined, by income. Same will Clinton--her proposal isn't super specific at this point.

Personally, living in NJ and having so many Canadian relatives, I am fine with slightly higher taxes if I know where it's going. In NJ we have Family Leave Insurance, and it's a line item on our paycheck deductions, it's a small amount (like $3-10, depending on income), and it's to allow every NJ worker 6 weeks of paid family leave. It's nice to see where it's going and to know the benefit.

If childcare were similar, a line item paycheck deduction, I would be fine with it, whether or not my family directly benefits. I think if most people think about it long enough, they will see the benefit of more parents in the workforce, rather than staying home and sometimes needing gov't assistance. Perhaps eventually, our government can save money in assistance and apply towards childcare and education.

@Anagram: Good point.

Another thing I just thought of is if you have more kids clearly your expenses is going to be more. How will they handle someone who has one kid versus someone who had 5 kids?

Will they have limitations or restrictions on what type of child care (nanny, daycare or other)?

ETA: Could they do something similar to college aid and some public state universities get more funding than private? I understand why people have reasons to use private nannies and childcare, but we all know daycare facilities are usually cheaper than nannies and private. Just wondering how they will address this issue. Unless, this makes everyone go to nanny care... knowing they will only have to pay the first 10%. Though, I understand with tax deductions, you have to have the money upfront and be able to afford it in the first place.

We send our 3 year old 3 days/ weekand our 12 week old 2 days/ week to daycare. Daycare costs are 18% of our pre-tax salaries. Crazy. We live in a NYC suburb.

With one kid, much less than 10% of our gross income. When we have two in daycare though, it'll be approaching 10%.

13% with two in half days. DH is taking a pay cut to move to regular business hours in a few months and then the kids will be in full time. I don't even want to calculate the percentage then.

Ours is just over 10%. Both kids go to school and we have a part time nanny, though the nanny does other stuff like cleaning so it saves us there.

@bluestriped bee: I was wondering a lot of the same things. These plans could really revolutionize childcare as we know it in the US.

Would more people choose "expensive" care options like Montessori if they knew they would get a tax refund later and prices were capped at 10% of income? Would more people choose nannies AND pay them legally (including worker's comp, etc) if they knew they would get a refund later? Would more people choose large centers over home-based daycares? Would more people choose licensed care over unlicensed?

I think it's important for society as a whole to have affordable childcare, so I support in theory, just not sure exactly how it would occur in practice.

If I include my quarterly bonuses (I always get at least 50% of it), it is less than 10%, otherwise I'm at 13% with one child not even full time. Dang. I do pay a lot in that context.

Pretty sure when #2 comes along, I'm springing for a nanny because it will be the same as daycare for two and a basic housecleaning.

@codeitall: I had originally thought about doing a nanny once we had a second but the problem is, by the time number 2 comes along, number 1 is at the point where they are really benefitting from being around their peers and having a real learning curriculum, and a nanny wouldn't meet those needs, so you have to add preschool on top of the cost of the nanny.

We pay about 4.7% of our pretax income on daycare costs. We are two full time working parents with one kid in daycare/preschool. I realize that we are VERY lucky with the cost of our care (we live in the midwest - rural area).

We will be having a baby in mid-February, but since we went through infertility and our DD will be almost 5 when the baby comes, we will only have a short period of time when 2 are in full time care.

I'm in New Zealand and we currently pay about 8% of our pre-tax income to Childcare costs. DH and I work a total of sixty hours, have a total of 54 hours of daycare (27 hours per child) and eighteen of those hours are paid for by the government. If we didn't have the eighteen hours of free childcare then our percentage would be closer to 16%

I voted 10% exactly (really 9.6%, but just about - yikes). We have one LO in full time preschool/daycare.

With both of us working full time and both kids in full time daycare, daycare is about 27% of our pre-tax income. By far our biggest expense.

I am in the San Francisco area and we are spending 23% off our pre-tax income on our daycare/preschool for the 2 kids. This makes me really look forward to kindergarten.