You must file Schedule H if you answer “Yes” to any of the questions on lines A, B, or C of Schedule H.
Did you have a household employee? If you hired someone to do household work and you could control what work he or she did and how he or she did it, you had a household employ-ee. This is true even if you gave the employee freedom of ac-tion. What matters is that you had the right to control the de-tails of how the work was done.Example. You paid Betty Oak to babysit your child and do light housework 4 days a week in your home. Betty followed your specific instructions about household and child care du-ties. You provided the household equipment and supplies Betty needed to do her work. Betty is your household employee.
Household work is work done in or around your home. Some examples of workers who do household work are:
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Babysitters
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Drivers
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Nannies
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Caretakers
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Health aides
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Private nurses
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Cleaning people
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Housekeepers
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Yard workers
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If a worker is your employee, it does not matter whether the work is full or part-time or that you hired the worker through an agency or from a list provided by an agency or association. Also, it does not matter if the wages paid are for work done hourly, daily, weekly, or by the job.
If you are a home care service recipient receiving home care services through a program administered by a federal, State, or local government agency, and the person who provides your care is your household employee, you can ask the IRS to au-thorize an agent under section 3504 to report, file, and pay all federal employment taxes, including FUTA taxes, on your be-half. See Form 2678, Employer/Payer Appointment of Agent, for more information.
Note. If a government agency or third party agent reports and pays the employment taxes on wages paid to your household employee on your behalf, you do not need to file Schedule H to report those taxes.
Workers who are not your employees. Workers you get from an agency are not your employees if the agency is respon-sible for who does the work and how it is done. Self-employed workers are also not your employees. A worker is self-em-ployed if only he or she can control how the work is done. A self-employed worker usually provides his or her own tools and offers services to the general public in an independent business.
Example. You made an agreement with Paul Brown to care for your lawn. Paul runs a lawn care business and offers his services to the general public. He hires his own helpers, in-structs them how to do their jobs, and provides his own tools and supplies. Neither Paul nor his helpers are your employees.
For more information, see Pub. 926.