The 45F tax credit, the federal employer-provided child care credit under Internal Revenue Code Section 45F, pays an employer back for providing child care to its employees' children, and its rates and caps changed for tax years 2026 and later.
Your center does not claim the credit: the employer does, on Form 8882 (IRS).
What a center does is stand on the other side of that contract as the qualified child care facility, which makes this credit one of the strongest hooks for the employer partnerships covered in our employer child care partnerships guide.
Searchers call it the employer provided child care credit, the employer child care tax credit, or just 45F; all of them point at the same section of the Internal Revenue Code.
What the 45F credit pays for tax years 2026 and later
For tax years 2026 and later, the credit equals 40% of qualified child care expenditures, plus 10% of qualified child care resource-and-referral expenditures, capped at $500,000 a year and adjusted for inflation (IRS page reviewed July 23, 2026).
An eligible small business gets more: 50% of qualified child care expenditures and a $600,000 cap, with the IRS defining an eligible small business as one whose average annual gross receipts over the prior five years are no more than $32 million, for tax years beginning in 2026.
The employer credit for tax years 2026 and later
If you land on a guide quoting 25% and a $150,000 cap, that is the pre-2026 credit: Congress raised the numbers in the 2025 federal tax law (Pub. L. 119-21, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), and the IRS page reviewed July 23, 2026 carries the figures that apply now.
What counts: contracts, intermediaries and the strings attached
Qualified expenditures include amounts an employer pays under a contract with a qualified child care facility to provide care to its employees, and that sentence is what your pitch stands on (IRS).
From 2026, the IRS also says a qualified facility may be jointly owned or operated with others, and payments made through an intermediate entity also count.
That is the provision behind a reserved-slots pitch, and behind arrangements where more than one employer pays through a shared intermediary, though whether any specific structure qualifies is a question for the employer's tax advisor.
There are strings attached on the employer's side: enrollment must be open to employees and cannot favor highly compensated employees (IRS).
Recapture exists too, because the IRS says the credit can be recaptured if the qualified child care facility stops operating within the recapture period, through the 10th tax year after the facility is placed in service.
Recapture mainly concerns facility-building expenses rather than the slot contracts a typical center signs, so it belongs in the conversation without dominating it.
Why employers are worth the pitch
Employer child care is still the exception: in March 2025, 13% of private-industry workers had access to employer childcare benefits, including 8% at establishments with fewer than 100 workers, 10% at 100–499, and 30% at 500 or more (BLS, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2025).
Private-industry workers with access to employer child care benefits, March 2025
The March 2026 release did not carry that childcare line in its summary, so March 2025 is the figure to cite (BLS).
Employers already pay for center-based care where the model is built: Bright Horizons' Form 10-K for 2025 says that at December 31, 2025 it operated 1,010 early education and child care centers worldwide, with capacity for about 115,000 children, and served more than 1,450 employers.
About 25% of its centers run on a cost-plus model for employer sponsors rather than the standard P&L model, per the same filing.
Employers are also already in the referral path: in a nationally representative 2024 survey of 2,035 parents of children under 6, 65.7% said they got child care information from people they know, a group the survey defined to include friends, family, employers and neighbors, even on social media (OPRE report, July 2025).
That figure measures where parents heard about care, not which source enrolled them, but it puts an employer's endorsement in the same channel as your best word of mouth.
How to pitch it: slots first, tax math last
Map the employers within reach of your rooms
Start with the largest employers near your center, where access to child care benefits runs from 8% at establishments with fewer than 100 workers to 30% at 500 or more (BLS, March 2025).
Bring a slot contract, not a tax opinion
Put the offer in the shape the rule names: a contract with a qualified child care facility to provide care to the employer's employees, with slots, ages, schedules and prices spelled out (IRS).
Keep enrollment open across the workforce
The employer has to keep enrollment open to employees and cannot favor highly compensated employees (IRS), so an executives-only deal is a problem their advisor will flag.
Hand the math to the employer's tax professional
Never quote a credit amount and never rate an employer's eligibility; the IRS page carries the rules, and their tax professional applies them to their own return.
The family's side of the ledger
The credit belongs to the employer, and the family side is separate: the IRS treats free or discounted on-site child care an employer provides as dependent care assistance within the employee's tax-free limit (IRS Publication 15-B).
Families may also claim the child and dependent care credit and, when the employer offers one, a dependent care FSA; our child care tax credits for parents guide covers those breaks, including the paperwork your center owes families, like your EIN on receipts and year-end statements.
This page describes what the IRS says about Section 45F as of October 2026 and is not tax advice: have the employer's tax professional confirm any arrangement before either side signs, and check with your state licensing agency or a lawyer before changing how you contract with employers.
Frequently asked questions
Who claims the 45F tax credit, the employer or the child care center?
The employer claims it, on Form 8882 (IRS). Your center is the qualified child care facility on the other side of the contract, providing the care.
What are the 45F rates and caps for tax years 2026 and later?
Per the IRS page reviewed July 23, 2026: 40% of qualified child care expenditures (50% for eligible small businesses) plus 10% of resource-and-referral costs, capped at $500,000 a year ($600,000 for small businesses), adjusted for inflation.
What makes an employer an eligible small business under 45F?
For tax years beginning in 2026, the IRS definition is average annual gross receipts of no more than $32 million over the prior five years.
Can a center take employer payments through a third party?
From 2026, the IRS says payments made through an intermediate entity count, and facilities may be jointly owned or operated with others. Whether a specific arrangement qualifies is a question for the employer's tax advisor.
Should a center tell an employer how much credit to expect?
No. Describe the program and the contract instead, because the amount depends on the employer's own tax situation, and a tax professional should calculate it.