Your friends, Tim and Shia, have hired a child care provider (Rebecca) to come into their home for three hours a day to care for their two children while they both are at work. Rebecca charges $4,500 for her services for the year. Tim and Shia have learned that up to $6,000 of qualifying expenditures will generate a credit for child and dependent care expenses and that qualifying expenditures can include payments for housecleaning services. As a result, they ask Rebecca whether she would be interested in working several hours more per week, after Tim returns from work, for the sole purpose of cleaning the house.

Tim and Shia offer to pay $1,500 for the additional work,

and Rebecca seems interested. For Tim and Shia, the net cost of the additional services would be $1,200 [$1,500 2 ($1,500 3 20%)] due to the availability of the credit for child and dependent care expenses.

You learn of Tim and Shia's opportunity, but you think it is unfair. If you hired someone to perform similarhousecleaning services, your net cost would be $1,500, not $1,200, because you do not qualify for the credit. You are troubled by this apparent inequity. Is your intuition correct?