The tax filing deadline for 2025 returns is April 15, 2026 — and for families navigating the cost of special needs care without employer benefits, that date carries far more weight than most people realize. When a social worker at Shelby County’s Department of Human Services suggested I speak with Eddie Patel in late January, she described him simply as “someone who helps everyone but himself.” That turned out to be an understatement.
I met Eddie at a folding table near the back of the assistance office waiting room in Memphis. He had come in to ask about TennCare eligibility for his son, Marcus, now 17, who has cerebral palsy and requires full-time supervision and daily personal care assistance. Eddie was polite, patient, and completely unaware that he had likely been leaving thousands of dollars in federal relief unclaimed for multiple years running.
A Business Owner Who Couldn’t Afford His Own Family’s Needs
Eddie Patel, 56, has operated Little Seedlings Daycare — a licensed, six-classroom facility in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis — for nearly nineteen years. The center serves roughly 40 children at any given time, mostly from working-class families who qualify for Tennessee’s subsidized childcare program. It is, by any measure, a labor of love.
His net income from the business in 2024 came to approximately $36,500 — enough to cover basic household expenses for himself, his wife Priya, and Marcus, but not enough to absorb the cost of Marcus’s care without serious strain. Eddie told me that in 2024 alone, the family paid roughly $14,200 out of pocket for Marcus’s personal care attendant services, adaptive equipment, and therapy co-pays not covered by their limited coverage plan.
“I knew there were credits for childcare. I just assumed Marcus aged out at 13 like everybody else’s kid,” Eddie told me, leaning forward in his chair. “Nobody told me different. Not my accountant, not anyone at the school. I just kept paying.”
He had been filing taxes with a local preparer each spring, using a basic software package, and consistently missing the special needs exception embedded in the IRS rules for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. The oversight was costing him real money every single year.
What the Child and Dependent Care Credit Actually Covers
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) is a federal credit designed to offset the cost of care for dependents while taxpayers work or look for work. For one qualifying individual, up to $3,000 in eligible expenses can be used to calculate the credit. For two or more qualifying individuals, that cap rises to $6,000.
The credit rate itself slides based on adjusted gross income. For taxpayers with AGI above $43,000, the rate is 20 percent of eligible expenses — meaning a maximum credit of $600 for one qualifying individual. For lower-income filers, that rate can be as high as 35 percent, yielding up to $1,050 on $3,000 of expenses. Eddie’s AGI of roughly $36,500 placed him in a bracket where he could claim closer to the higher end of that range.
The critical piece Eddie had never been told: according to IRS Publication 503, a person who is physically or mentally unable to care for themselves — regardless of age — qualifies as a “qualifying person” for this credit. Marcus, at 17, with cerebral palsy requiring daily attendant assistance, meets that definition clearly.
Three Years of Missed Credits and a Health Insurance Gap
When I asked Eddie how long he had been paying out of pocket without claiming the credit, he paused and counted quietly on his fingers. “At least 2022, 2023, 2024. Maybe 2021 too,” he said. “I’d have to go back and look.” Based on conservative estimates using his income level and eligible care expenses across those years, he may have missed somewhere between $2,500 and $4,000 in total credits — money that could have meaningfully offset Marcus’s care costs.
The health insurance situation was equally precarious. Because Eddie owns his business rather than drawing a traditional salary from an employer, no group plan was available to his family. He had been paying $847 per month for a limited-benefit plan purchased directly from a broker — one that excluded many of Marcus’s therapies and had a $9,000 annual deductible. He did not know that his income level likely qualified him for significant premium subsidies through the ACA Marketplace.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act provisions extended through 2025, enhanced premium tax credits remain available to households earning between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level — and in some cases, beyond that threshold. For a family of three in Tennessee with an income around $36,500, those subsidies can be substantial. According to HealthCare.gov’s subsidy estimator, a family in that income range may qualify for plans with premiums as low as $50 to $150 per month after credits are applied.
The Turning Point: What Changed After Our Conversation
In the weeks following our initial meeting, I connected Eddie with a volunteer tax preparer through the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which provides free federal tax preparation to households earning under $67,000. He also agreed to speak with a certified application counselor through a local nonprofit that assists families with Marketplace enrollment.
When I spoke with Eddie again in mid-March, the VITA preparer had completed his 2025 return. He had claimed the Child and Dependent Care Credit based on $3,000 of Marcus’s eligible care expenses, receiving a credit of approximately $900 against his tax liability. It was not a windfall, but it was real money — and it was his.
“Nine hundred dollars. That’s two months of Marcus’s attendant hours,” Eddie told me, his voice carrying something between relief and frustration. “I’m happy to get it. But I keep thinking about the years I didn’t.”
The Marketplace review was still in progress as of this writing, but the application counselor had preliminary estimates suggesting Eddie’s family could qualify for a Silver plan with a monthly premium near $140 after subsidies — roughly $700 less per month than what he had been paying. That difference, annualized, would amount to more than $8,400 in potential savings.
What Eddie’s Story Reflects About Low-Income Business Owners
Eddie Patel’s situation is not unique. Self-employed individuals and small business owners — particularly those in care-based industries — often fall into a documentation gap where they earn too much to qualify for some forms of direct assistance but too little to absorb unsubsidized costs. They file taxes, they work long hours, and they frequently assume that credits designed for “working families” simply do not apply to them.
What struck me most about Eddie was not how much he had missed — it was how calmly he accepted having missed it. He did not express anger at a system that had failed to inform him. He expressed something quieter: a tired recognition that this was simply how things had always gone for families like his.
As I left the daycare on my final visit — a Thursday afternoon, the building full of the sound of children finishing lunch — Eddie was already back at work, walking the hallway, checking on his staff. The amended returns for 2022 and 2023 were still being reviewed. The Marketplace application was still pending. The TennCare determination for Marcus could take months.
None of it is resolved neatly. But for the first time in several years, Eddie Patel knew what he was owed — and someone was helping him try to get it before the window closed.
Related: The IRS Flagged Her Return for Manual Review — A Minneapolis Daycare Owner’s 78-Day Wait for $4,200
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