Confirm who is the household employee
Start with the actual working arrangement, not the label in a payment app. Establish who employs the worker and what work is being done. A nanny, housekeeper or caregiver arrangement can raise household employer questions. If an agency or another family is involved, clarify responsibility before preparing wage records. Do not assume a template or a small expected wage amount decides employment status.
Arrange your EIN and employer details
Obtain an employer identification number, or EIN, for the employer as appropriate to the household employment setup. Keep the employer name and identifying information consistent across your employment records and forms. Store the information securely so it is available for reporting without being casually shared. If you are unsure who should apply or appear as employer, resolve that question before copying details onto documents.
Handle employee paperwork
Plan for Form I-9 and the applicable employment eligibility process. Ask the employee for Form W-4 when it is needed for the agreed federal income tax withholding arrangement, and understand what the form is used for. Do not treat the presence of a withholding field in a template as an instruction to guess an amount. Get guidance on which paperwork and withholding treatment apply.
Keep personal details accurate and protected. A pay stub does not replace employment eligibility paperwork, and completing a form does not itself pay wages or submit taxes. Organize the underlying documents separately from the copies you provide on payday so you can retrieve what is needed without oversharing unrelated employee information.
Check your state
Check your state for employer registration, unemployment tax, wage statements and other applicable requirements. This checklist does not provide state-specific rules or amounts. Do not assume a federal household tax threshold answers every state question. Keep a note of the official guidance or professional advice you relied on, and revisit it if the work location or employment arrangement changes.
Agree on pay and keep work records
Write down the agreed pay basis, work schedule and how hours are recorded. Keep actual work dates, rates and payment details. Pay records should explain genuine earnings, deductions and net payments. A bank transfer or cash acknowledgment helps document payment, while a stub explains how the amount was worked out. Keep the supporting information together rather than relying on a later memory of the arrangement.
Review the household tax thresholds
Use IRS Publication 926 to review your obligations. When 2026 cash wages to an employee reach $3,000, Social Security and Medicare apply under the household threshold rule, subject to applicable exceptions. Employee rates are 6.2% and 1.45%, with the same rates paid by the employer. The Social Security wage base is $184,500.
FUTA applies if you pay $1,000 or more in cash wages to household employees in any calendar quarter. It is 6.0% of the first $7,000 per employee, minus a credit of up to 5.4% for state unemployment tax paid. Wages paid to your spouse, your child under 21, your parent with exceptions, or an employee under 18 with exceptions are generally not subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes; see Pub 926 for the exceptions.
Preview the pay record
Use the 2026 nanny tax calculator to explore an estimate and the nanny pay stub template to review the fields. For care work, see the caregiver template. Enter actual figures and check YTD totals against the real pay history. Neither tool pays employees, remits taxes or files forms.
Plan annual reporting and retention
For 2026 wages, Form W-2 is due to the employee and Social Security Administration by February 1, 2027. Schedule H is filed with Form 1040, due April 15, 2027. Decide who will handle the applicable filings, reconcile wages before submitting them, and keep employment tax records for at least 4 years. Use qualified help when the arrangement or tax treatment is uncertain.
Frequently asked questions
Does making a pay stub register me as an employer?
No. Employer identification, employee paperwork, state requirements, payments and tax filings are separate responsibilities. A generated stub only documents entered pay details.
Should every household employee have guessed federal withholding?
No. Handle Form W-4 and any agreed federal income tax withholding appropriately. Do not invent deductions because a template includes a field for them.
Can I leave state checks until after generating the stub?
Check your state when organizing the employment arrangement. Federal guidance and a document template do not answer all state registration, tax or wage statement questions.