Household employees less than $2000.

[TaxGuyBill]

See page 14=3 in TTB. I looked it up there and in Pub 926. No where does it say you prepare W-2 forms to HH employees earning under $2,000. I stand by my previous answer.

He withheld Federal Income Tax.


Form W-2. File a separate 2017 Form W-2 for each household employee to whom you pay either of the following wages during the year.

Social security and Medicare wages of $2,000 or more.

Wages from which you withhold federal income tax.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p926/ar02.html#en_US_2017_publink100086765

As a side note, I personally think it is 'nice' to the employee to file a W-2 even if it was not required. Some software makes it complicated to report Household Employee income without a W-2.

[Burke]

As a side note, I personally think it is 'nice' to the employee to file a W-2 even if it was not required. Some software makes it complicated to report Household Employee income without a W-2.

I agree. Since W-2's go to the SSA for crediting of SSA wages, I imagine that is why it is not mentioned. I don't think that means it is not taxable, and it sure makes life easier if you have a W-2 for all sorts of reasons that require documentation of income.

[nwtaxlady]

I just posted a similar question about a week ago.....

I recently posted a similar question regarding the requirement of issuing a W-2 to those caregivers under $2,000. There seems to be a difference in opinions whether to issue the W-2 or not. In TTB, it does not specifically address this issue. It says under $2,000 not subject to Fica and Medicare taxes but does NOT say that they are excluded from issuing a W-2 from what I read. It does say that they are subject to FUTA, which is reported on the Sch H. Others have recommended to me to go ahead and issue the W-2's with amount of wages in box 1 and all other boxes 0. Then that way they will be reporting the income AND it would match the Sch H for FUTA incase they are able to match those figures (who knows if they actually do).

Thoughts on that?

[TaxGuyBill]

As Kram mentioned in your post, no W-2 would be required for the Household Employees that received $100 or $700, unless Federal Income Tax was withheld.

Personally, I would issue them anyways because it makes it easier for the employees to report. If you issue them, yes, only box 1 (and the State) would have numbers. Boxes 2-6 would be zeros.

A W-2 is required for the Household Employee that received $15,000.

[taxea]

Do you know, for a fact, that each has no other taxable income? Since you already withheld I would issue the W-2's and send the funds to the IRS.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Federal withholding

They had federal withholding from their paycheck. I must give them a W-2 and they can file it to get their money back.

Linda, EA

[Burke]

Bottom line, and done!

[oceanlovin'ea]

Quote from instructions for Schedule H:
You must file Form W-2 for each household employee to
whom you paid $2,000 or more of cash wages in 2016 that are
subject to social security and Medicare taxes. To find out if the
wages are subject to these taxes, see the instructions for Sched-
ule H, lines 1, 3, and 5. Even if the wages aren't subject to
these taxes, if you withheld federal income tax from the wages
of any household employee, you must file Form W-2 for that
employee.

I withheld federal income tax from the employees with under $2000 in wages so I had to file a W-2 for them.

Linda, EA

[oceanlovin'ea]

Latest in the saga of the W-2's

When Lady A went to file her taxes, there were rejected because of the EIN. Told her I would check on it. Called IRS and was told that since I had just gotten the number on 1-17-17 it was not in the system yet and to wait a couple of weeks. In the meantime, Block called her and told her it went through..used last year's number they said (but there was no number last year).
Then I filed Lady B (which happens to be my sister-in-law). It rejected because EIN was issued in year later than year of tax return. I spent 5 hours on the phone with different IRS departments trying to get an answer to this problem.
Bottom line: Since the EIN was not in existence as of Dec 31, 2016 it is not in the system that processes the tax return. They will all have to mail in their tax returns. None can be electronically filed.

I feel so bad that I have messed up these people like this. Since I didn't have to do 941's I didn't think about the EIN. I guess I really thought I would use her social security number.....until I read Pub 926 and it said I had to get EIN. So I did. Can't be fixed....they just have to do paper returns.

Well, actually I just took my sister-in-law's W-2 off their return and it went through just fine. In January 2017 I will file an amended return because then it will be in the system.

Sometimes you learn things the HARD way. But then this will probably never come up again while I am still preparing tax returns.

Linda, EA

[Burke]

When Lady A went to file her taxes, there were rejected because of the EIN. In the meantime, Block called her and told her it went through..used last year's number they said (but there was no number last year). Linda, EA

Interesting. Did HRB have a W-2 from 2015? Did they use your Mom's SSN?