Thank you. Yes, we did not expect to be anywhere near any limits; she babysat for us for a few hours on an occasional Saturday afternoon, and was making $50-$120 a month. But, our nanny wanted to do 4 days a week instead of 5, and she was interested in the one day.

If you are 14:50, PP, I'm not talking about you.

Reading comprehension is fundamental.

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the PPs who say you are not required to withhold taxes or that no one cares, OP. They're wrong. The IRS doesn't distinguish between babysitting and other childcare providers. You are subject to the same IRS regulations.

The law is clear. Don't break the law.

Umm, I'm one of the PPs who said this, and in this particular situation, I am *not* wrong. The issue is not whether babysitting is any different from other child care--it's whether the employee started out as a permanent regular employee, which this one did not. If the employee was an occasional employee and the employer did not expect to meet the $1900 threshold for the year, there was no requirement to withhold or pay those taxes for the initial pay periods. These kick in once the thresholds are met, and at that point, you don't go back and withhold retroactively.

For household employees, you are also not required to withhold FICA regardless (different from standard employees). You have to *pay* the full amount, but whether you pay it from your own funds or the employee pays half of it is up the the agreement between employee and employer, per the IRS. In this case, I'd probably withhold it moving forward but just pay it myself for the early pay periods when there was no withholding for simplicity's sake. Do be sure you keep track of how much you paid during that time, though.

OP, both IRS and SSA have great guides to how (and when) to calculate and pay taxes for household employees on their websites; I highly recommend reading through to see where your situation will fall. (Note also, for instance, that you need to pay Federal Unemployment Tax if you pay at least $1000 in a quarter, even if you never hit $1900 for the year--so it's a slightly different threshold.)

You don't know what the IRS would do or not do, 12:52, and it is irresponsible for you to recommend anyone break the law because you think they won't get caught.

Are you a fan of shoplifting, too?

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the PPs who say you are not required to withhold taxes or that no one cares, OP. They're wrong. The IRS doesn't distinguish between babysitting and other childcare providers. You are subject to the same IRS regulations.

The law is clear. Don't break the law.

1) The IRS will never go after anyone because they found out you paid your babysitter $2000 and didn't withhold any taxes.

2) The IRS would never find this out.

PP here. Withhold FICA that is. Withholding income tax is totally optional with no repercussions to you. I suppose withholding FICA is technically optional, but it comes out of your pocket if you don't.

You actually can't withhold retroactively. You will be responsible for 100% of FICA. Going forward, you should withhold.

Ignore the PPs who say you are not required to withhold taxes or that no one cares, OP. They're wrong. The IRS doesn't distinguish between babysitting and other childcare providers. You are subject to the same IRS regulations.

The law is clear. Don't break the law.

No one cares either way. I've never seen a bunch of less informed mom bicker about taxes than on this forum.

What 14:50 said--but you are not required to withhold taxes unless the employee wants you to, so you don't need to go back either way. If the sitter has a regular full-time job, she may already have taxes withheld that will cover this income; if not, you can withhold from future paychecks at a rate that will cover the earlier pay. I wouldn't mess with doing anything retroactive.

It's decided on an annual basis - so if you pay her 1900 or more in the year she is an employee subject to FICA

Does anyone know what to do if a very occasional babysitter (once or twice a month) becomes a regular employee? Do I need to go back and take taxes out for the period before we hired her on a regular basis?