Message from Congressman Tonko

The State of New York continues to experience a critical shortage of childcare seats throughout the state, particularly seats for infants and toddlers. Despite efforts to increase services, the growing demand still outpaces the availability of accessible and quality childcare seats for New York families.

In our effort to meet this demand, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) partnered with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to create the Child Care Creation and Expansion Tax Credit. This initiative is designed to incentivize and assist businesses that generate greatly needed infant and toddler childcare seats. New York businesses that are providing licensed or registered child day care seats for their employees, either directly or through a third party, can apply for the tax credit. This tax credit will directly support businesses in recruiting, as well as retaining employees, by offering affordable and reliable child care.

To be eligible for a tax credit under the childcare creation and expansion initiative, a business entity must:

• operate a business location in New York State and be a business entity required to file a tax return pursuant to Article 9-A, 22 or 33 of the Tax Law;
• be a child care program, or contract with such child care program, as defined in this title, that is licensed or registered pursuant to NYS SSL §390;
• create or expand child care seats in the infant and/or toddler categories, directly or through a third party, for the employees of such business entity on or after April 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2025, with children occupying the seats;
• be in compliance with any child care licensing laws and regulations related to the entity's business sector or other laws and regulations, as determined by the OCFS commissioner; and
• not owe past-due state taxes or local property taxes, unless the business entity is making payments and complying with an approved binding payment agreement entered into with the taxing authority.

The childcare crisis is not isolated to NYS; similar critical shortages can be observed throughout all 50 states. OCFS found that the states that have made the most progress are those with strong partnerships between government agencies, community organizations, and businesses. OCFS is confident that building partnerships with NYS businesses will lead to advances in meeting the ever-growing demand for child care.

For more information, details on the application window from January 1-31, 2025 visit the NYS OCFS website.