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E-NEWSLETTER
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Household Employees and Your Taxes
Employment Tax Responsibilities for Employers of Household Workers Household employees are workers you hire for “ domestic services,” i.e., those services performed in and about your home. Duties of cooks, butlers, housekeepers, governesses ,maids, valets, babysitters, caretakers, gardeners, janitors, or personal chauffeurs all can qualify as “domestic services.” Not everyone you hire for work at your home is considered a household employee, though. For example, a self-employed gardener may take care of your lawn and several others in your neighborhood, providing all his own tools and job assistants and setting his own work schedule. That gardener probably won’t be considered your household employee because he is running an independent operation over which you have no “say-so.” You see, a worker at your home becomes an employee when you control what work that person is to do AND how and when the work is to be done. If you qualify as a household employer, you may have to pay certain federal payroll taxes, including social security and Medicare taxes and unemployment taxes. You withhold some of these taxes from your employee’s wages; others you must pay from your own funds. (Some states require certain taxes too, so be sure to check with the state employment department in your area.) As an employer, you must match the amount of social security and Medicare tax you withhold from your employee’s wages. For instance, if you withheld $50 in social security from your housekeeper’s wages, you would be required to pay to the government $100 (the $50 withheld from your employee, plus another $50 from your own funds). Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA): You are also responsible for FUTA taxes if you paid a total of $1,000 (2009 threshold amount, call this office for other years) or more in household employee wages during any calendar quarter of the current year or the previous year. FUTA tax isn’t a withholding tax but is paid by you alone on behalf of your employees. (Certain states also assess unemployment taxes – check with the appropriate agency in your area.) To accurately prepare W-2s, you need certain information from your employee, including his/her name, address, and social security number. So that you have all the necessary information available for timely filing, you may want to have your workers fill out Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, when you hire them. That way you will have data on file to complete W-2s when the time comes. Employee Form W–4: If you agree to withhold income tax for an employee, ask him/her to complete Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. The information on this form will help you determine the correct amount of income tax to withhold. Payroll Journal: You should record in a journal each payday the wages and withholding of household employees. Set up a separate record for each employee with room for the following information:
For computer users, an inexpensive payroll program may simplify the recordkeeping job. Keep employment tax records for at least four years after the later of: the due date of the return on which you report the taxes, or the date you pay the taxes.
Are the Payroll Taxes you Pay Deductible?
In these two situations, the payroll taxes that you include are the FUTA tax, state unemployment tax, and your portion of the Social Security and Medicare taxes that you have actually paid during your tax year. For example, if you paid FUTA tax in January for medically deductible wages that you paid to a nurse in the prior year, you would include the FUTA tax as part of your medical expenses on your current year return (return for the year in which the FUTA tax was actually paid). (The wages paid in the prior year are deductible on your prior year return.) Do not include the Social Security and Medicare taxes, federal and state income taxes, or other state or local taxes you’ve withheld from the employee’s wages, since these amounts are already part of the gross wages for which you are claiming the credit or deduction.
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