Form IT-652 Instructions: Employer-Provided Childcare Credit (Tax Year 2025)

Form IT-652 is the New York State tax form businesses use to claim the Employer-Provided Childcare Credit. This credit rewards employers who help their workers cover childcare costs, either by operating a qualified childcare facility, contracting with one, or paying into a childcare resource and referral program. If your business incurred qualified childcare expenditures during 2025, this form is how you translate that spending into a credit against your New York State tax liability.

The credit is issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, and it mirrors a similar federal credit but applies specifically to state tax filings. It’s meant to encourage employers to invest in workforce childcare support, whether that means building an on-site facility, subsidizing a third-party provider, or funding referral services that help employees locate care for their children.

Who needs to file Form IT-652

This form applies to businesses, not individual taxpayers. If you’re a sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or corporation operating in New York and you paid for qualified childcare expenses tied to employee benefits, you’ll want to fill out IT-652 alongside your regular business tax return. Partnerships and S corporations that pass credits through to partners or shareholders also use this form to calculate the credit amount that flows down to each owner.

Employers who don’t provide any childcare-related benefits to staff have no reason to file this form. It’s strictly for businesses that made qualified expenditures during the tax year, such as costs for operating a childcare facility used by employees, contracts with licensed childcare providers, or resource and referral services offered as an employee benefit.

When to use this credit

You claim the Employer-Provided Childcare Credit for the same tax year in which the qualified expenses were paid or incurred. For tax year 2025, that means expenses from the 2025 calendar or fiscal year, depending on how your business reports income. The credit reduces your New York State tax liability directly, so it needs to be calculated and attached during the filing process for your annual return, not submitted separately or after the fact.

Businesses that also claim other New York State credits, like the Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Credit or the Pass-Through Entity Tax Credit, may need to coordinate how multiple credits interact on their return. Each credit form has its own calculation rules, so it’s worth reviewing the instructions for each one separately even if you’re claiming several in the same filing year.

How to get and complete Form IT-652

Form IT-652 isn’t a fillable PDF you can complete on a computer and save. You’ll need to download it, print it out, and fill it in by hand using black ink. The official version is available directly from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance website.

Once printed, the form walks you through identifying your qualified childcare expenditures, applying the applicable credit percentage, and calculating any credit limitations based on your tax liability. Partnerships and S corporations will also need to detail how the credit is allocated among partners or shareholders, since the credit passes through to individual owners rather than being claimed at the entity level in most cases.

Keep documentation of your childcare-related expenses on hand in case the Department of Taxation and Finance requests verification. This includes contracts with childcare providers, invoices, or records showing payments made toward a resource and referral service. While you don’t submit these documents with your return, having them organized makes it easier to respond if questions come up later.

After completing IT-652 by hand, attach it to your New York State business tax return when you file. If you’re also claiming a credit related to New York City taxes, such as through Form NYC-210, double check that you’re using the correct forms for state versus city-level credits, since they’re processed separately.