Child care expenses considered to be “qualified” for the purposes of taxes, “are those that are necessary for the employee to continue work, provided the parent is paying an unrelated child care provider who meets state regulations for that type of child care setting and allows the parent to report her/his taxpayer identification number. Dependent care expense accounts may also be used to fund care for elderly relatives under certain, fairly restrictive, conditions. The main condition is that the relative must be claimed as a dependent on the employee’s taxes” (p. 607) (Kelly).
Kelly, E.L. (2003). The strange history of employer-sponsored child care: Interested actors, uncertainty, and the transformation of law in organizational fields. American Journal of Sociology, 109(3), 606-649.