If you have private in-home care not from an agency, how do you handle taxes on their income?

I would listen to tacy, she is a certified CMA, this is like a CPA but with the added knowledge of business management, tax planning strategies and such, actually better than a CPA. More knowledge.

This is NOT a in my view situation. You can not claim ignorance with labor laws or IRS. They will nail your hind end if it is not per City, County, State and Federal laws. If you didn't know then you were negligent because you didn't find out. They have no mercy or compassion and the penalties, fees and interest are steep.

Payroll agencies will charge you all of the taxes, insurances and a mark up for their services, all is tax deductible, they will file all of the quarterly and annual reports that everyone with employees are required to file. Some even offer health insurance benefits because essentially they are the employer.

I don't know how it works on your homeowner's insurance policy but workmans comp insurance has a minimum annual fee, my current is 1,250.00 annually, my last one was 1,550.00, so before you balk at the fees of a payroll agency, get quotes and know what you are required to do for all of your government entities. It's not a big deal for someone that does it ,but if you aren't a bookkeeper or accountant you could get into some expensive messes. If you mess up payroll taxes, you will probably get tagged for an audit, they are expensive and stressful. Also, you will get an annual payroll audit for your workmans comp and need to prove that you did everything with your payroll liability correctly and they may want to see financial information (not sure on homeowners policy if this is true) but I have had an audit annually for 30 years.

If you plan on DIY, get tacy to help you or hire someone to get you set up. Please do not think that opinions will be correct.

FF, if you withhold taxes and match SS/Medicare taxes you would be required to send a w2 not a 1099. Those actions make them an employee not a 1099 contractor. Just fyi.

Ps, payroll and staffing agencies are not the same. Payroll handles just that, staffing actually provides the individual and is their employer, you would be the client.

kathr1, you could hire a payroll company to do the paychecks. They will calculate what payroll taxes need to be taken out, and mail out the paycheck to the caregiver. Plus provide the required IRS 1099.

One thing to remember, if you are using a self-employed caregiver, your Mom would need to have a workman's comp policy on her homeowners insurance, just in case the caregiver gets hurt on the job.

Here's my take. The private paid caregiver is self employed. As such, you are not responsible for income taxes to be withdrawn from her salary. What you r responsible for is deducting SS and matching it sending a check to SS every gtr. The 1099 is sent to the IRS to show what you paid the caregiver and he/she is responsible to pay taxes.

Like tacy said, get a good bookkeeper to help u thru this. I may be wrong.