Household Employee

Household employees are people whose job involves taking care of some aspect of a personal residence that is not their own. Nannies, personal cooks, housekeepers, butlers, gardeners, in-home nurses, handmaids, minstrels, and jesters are all examples of household employees.

Why is this important? Because being a household employee is a tax designation (informally called the “nanny tax”), and it can have big implications for what we owe every year. It can be difficult to figure out sometimes whether a person is a household employee or an independent contractor, but it’s definitely worth noodling it out. Because if we’re a household employee, our employer—the household—needs to be paying employment taxes. But if we’re an independent contractor, then paying those employment taxes is our responsibility.