Hiring Household Employees
You have a household employee if you hired someone to do household work and that worker is your employee. The worker is your employee if you can control not only what work is done, but how it is done. If the worker is your employee, then it does not matter whether the work is full time or part time, or whether you hired the worker through an agency or from a list provided by an agency or association. It also does not matter whether you pay the worker on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, or by the job.
Example
You pay Betty Shore to babysit your child and do light housework four days a week in your home. Betty follows your specific instructions about household and child care duties. You provide the household equipment and supplies that Betty needs to do the work. Betty is your household employee.
Household Work
Household work is work done in or around your home. Some examples of workers who do household work are
- Babysitters
- Caretakers
- Cleaning people
- Domestic workers
- Drivers
- Health aides
- Housekeepers
- Maids
- Nannies
- Private nurses
- Yard workers
Workers Who Are Not Your Employees
If only the worker can control how the work is done, then that worker is not your employee but is a self-employed worker. Self-employed workers usually provide their own tools and offer services to the general public as an independent business.
Workers who perform child care services for you in their own home are generally not your employees. If an agency provides the worker and controls what work is done and how it is done, then that worker is not your employee.
Example
You made an agreement with John Peters to care for your lawn. John runs a lawn care business and offers his services to the general public. He provides his own tools and supplies, and he hires and pays any helpers he needs. Neither John nor his helpers are your household employees.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). (Revised 2025, January 16). Hiring household employees. Retrieved February 3, 2025, from https://www.irs.gov