I work full-time. My wife's primary job is caring for our children. In addition to that, she is working on a novel, which is currently in the stage of being edited for submission to agents and, eventually, publishers. She sincerely intends to get the novel published, and in that endeavor she is being assisted by a friend who is a copy editor and another friend who is a successful, published novelist (I would drop names, but that's just so gauche :-). Neither the copy editor nor the novelist is accepting payment for her assistance.
Because my wife's child-care responsibilities do not leave her enough time to do the work she needs to do on her novel, and because I don't have enough free time from work to be able to care for the children for enough hours for my wife to do her work, we had to hire a babysitter.
The babysitter comes four days per week -- two afternoons and two evenings. The evenings are specifically designated as "writing nights," and my wife leaves the house while the babysitter is in it and goes off somewhere and works on her novel.
We were specifically advised to take this approach by my wife's novelist friend, who set some strict deadlines on my wife's progress on her novel as a condition of being willing to assist her with acquiring acquiring an agent and getting the book published.
We would not have hired the babysitter if my wife weren't doing the writing nights.
Given all those details, my question is, is the cost of the babysitter for the writing nights deductible as an employment-related child-care expense? I'm guessing the answer is no, but I thought it a good idea to ask.
If not, is the cost deductible as a business expense, where the business is my wife's attempt to get her novel published and make some money from it? If so, then obviously there is not yet any income from which to deduct the expense; can it be carried forward until such time as my wife actually makes some money off of all her work?
Thanks for any advice you can provide.
Jonathan Kamens