How to file Schedule H and a caregiver's W-2
Once you're paying an in-home caregiver on the books, the year-end paperwork comes down to a short, predictable list: an Employer Identification Number to anchor everything, a Schedule H filed with the employer's tax return, and a W-2 for the caregiver. None of it is as heavy as it sounds. Here's how the pieces generally fit together — and, just as important, whose name they go under.
Start with an EIN
An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a free number the IRS issues to identify an employer — the household equivalent of the number a business uses on its filings. Whoever is the legal employer applies for one; when you're arranging care for a parent, that's usually the parent. You can generally request it online and get it in a few minutes, at no cost.
You don't need to run a business to have an EIN — a family employing a caregiver uses one purely to file household-employment taxes and issue a W-2. It's the anchor every later form points back to, which is why KinPayroll asks for the employer's EIN before it will generate a Schedule H. If it's unclear whose name the EIN should be under, that's worth confirming with a tax advisor.
Schedule H, filed with the 1040
Household-employment taxes are generally reported once a year on Schedule H, which attaches to the employer's personal Form 1040 rather than a separate business return. It totals the Social Security and Medicare taxes for the year and adds federal unemployment tax (FUTA) where it applies, so those amounts get paid alongside the rest of that return.
Because it rides along with the 1040, there's usually no separate quarterly filing the way a business has. If the added tax is large enough, some families adjust their own withholding or estimated payments during the year so they aren't caught short at filing time — but whether that applies to you depends on your numbers. A tax advisor can tell you.
The caregiver's W-2
Separately, the employer gives the caregiver a W-2 reporting the year's wages and what was withheld, so the caregiver can file their own return. A copy also goes to the Social Security Administration, generally by the W-2 deadline early in the year — which usually falls before the 1040 deadline, so it's not one to leave to the last minute.
A W-2 needs a few details on file: the employer's EIN and address, and the caregiver's Social Security number and address. Gathering those when the caregiver starts, rather than scrambling in January, is what makes year-end painless.
Where KinPayroll fits
KinPayroll is built to produce exactly these forms from the payroll you've already run. On a paid plan, it generates the Schedule H for the employer and a W-2 for each caregiver, pulling the wage and withholding totals straight from the year's logged pay runs — so the boxes are filled from real records, not reconstructed from memory in April.
It also prompts you for the pieces each form needs — the employer's EIN before Schedule H, the caregiver's SSN and addresses before the W-2 — so nothing's missing when you go to file. What you ultimately owe and which forms apply still depend on your situation, so review the result with a tax advisor before filing.
This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Tax and Medicaid outcomes depend on your specific situation and your state's rules — confirm with a qualified tax advisor or elder-law professional before acting.