W-2 box 10 (dep. care) - includes forfeited amount?

"Mark Bole" wrote

I don't see this as a tax issue, but one of employer honesty. What is the "value of all dependent care assistance" paid for, and report that amount. That the employer happened to have received a few bucks more than their costs shouldn't impact the reporting on the W-2.

I was looking at it from the *employee* point of view. Line 16 of Form

2441 asks for the forfeited amount, and the form instructions give an example where gross amount is reported in box 10, then employee states amount forfeited on Form 2441, line 16, where it is subtracted from the gross. Someone else is telling me that only the net amount (what was actually reimbursed) should be reported in Box 10 of W-2, which means the employee would never use Line 16 of Form 2441. I'm just trying to find out which is "right" (or at least, which is more common).

-Mark Bole

The "amount you cannot exclude" would be anything over $5,000, correct?

Amount paid (net) is in Box 10. If less than this amount is used for dep. care, then "DCB" appears on Line 7 of the 1040, showing the additional income.