Louisiana Form R-10614 is the certificate you attach to your state income tax return to claim the School Readiness child care expense credit. Your child’s early learning center fills out the top half, you fill out the bottom half, and the completed form travels with your Form IT-540. You don’t start from a blank form yourself — the facility is required to prepare one for each qualifying child who attended during the tax year.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit
Getting the Form From Your Facility
Ask your child care provider for the completed R-10614 in January. Providers are required to give one to the parent or guardian of each qualifying child who attended during the tax year.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit If the director is slow about it, follow up early rather than waiting until April. A written request creates a record if you need one.
If your child attended more than one facility during the year, use the R-10614 from the facility with the highest star rating. Not an average, not the one where the child spent the most time — the highest rating available.
What the Facility Fills In
The top portion is the director’s responsibility. It contains the center’s name, license number, Louisiana Revenue Account Number, quality star rating, and the date that rating was awarded.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit
Before you take the form home, check every field. A blank line or a wrong number here can delay your credit or get it rejected. The star rating is the single most important entry, because the credit percentage depends on it. You can verify a center’s current rating through the Louisiana Department of Education’s performance profiles at louisianaschools.com. If what the director wrote doesn’t match, ask for a corrected form.
What You Fill In
The bottom portion is yours. Enter your identifying information and the details for the qualifying child the facility listed above. Confirm the child’s information lines up with what you’ll report as a dependent on your IT-540, and that the facility’s star rating in the top half is what you expected before you sign.
Where It Goes on Your IT-540
Which line you use depends on your federal adjusted gross income, not your Louisiana taxable income. Pull the AGI figure from your federal return before you decide.
- If your federal AGI is $25,000 or less, the credit is refundable. Enter it on Line 15 of Form IT-540. If the credit is larger than your Louisiana tax, the state sends you the difference.2Louisiana Department of Revenue. IT-540 2025 Louisiana Resident
- If your federal AGI is greater than $25,000, the credit is nonrefundable. Enter it on Schedule J, Line 4. It reduces your tax bill, and any unused portion carries forward for up to five years.2Louisiana Department of Revenue. IT-540 2025 Louisiana Resident
Attach the completed R-10614 when you submit the return.3Louisiana Department of Education. Early Childhood Family Tax Credit If you have more than one qualifying child, you’ll have one R-10614 per child, and the credit is calculated separately for each.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit
How Much the Credit Is Worth
The School Readiness credit is a percentage of the regular Louisiana child care expense credit you already claim. The percentage comes from the facility’s star rating:1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit
- Five stars: 200%
- Four stars: 150%
- Three stars: 100%
- Two stars: 50%
- One star or not participating in Quality Start: 0%
If your regular Louisiana child care credit is $50 and your child attended a three-star center, the School Readiness credit adds another $50. At a five-star center, the same $50 base turns into $100.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit This credit is on top of the regular child care expense credit under R.S. 47:297.4; it doesn’t replace it.
Who Qualifies
Three conditions have to be met for the form to produce a credit. The child must be a qualifying dependent under age six during the tax year. The child must have attended a center participating in Louisiana’s Quality Start rating program. And the center must hold at least a two-star rating.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit A one-star center, or one that doesn’t participate in Quality Start, produces no credit even if everything else lines up.
The under-six rule applies to the tax year the child attended, not the date you file. A child who turned six during the year still qualifies based on attendance before that birthday, but a child who was already six when the year began does not.
Mistakes That Cost You the Credit
Claiming for a child who was six or older at the start of the tax year is the most common disqualifier. Review the dependent’s age before you file.
Using the wrong line on the IT-540 is the next most common. If your federal AGI is $25,000 or less and you put the credit on Schedule J instead of Line 15, you give up a refund you were entitled to. If your AGI is above $25,000 and you claim the refundable version, the return gets flagged and delayed.2Louisiana Department of Revenue. IT-540 2025 Louisiana Resident
Don’t confuse the School Readiness credit with the regular Louisiana child care expense credit. They are separate line items, and the School Readiness credit under R.S. 47:6104 is calculated from the regular credit under R.S. 47:297.4. You claim both.1Louisiana Department of Revenue. School Readiness Credit