Estimate full employer cost of hiring a nanny.
Total employer cost
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Employer SS + Medicare (7.65%)
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FUTA (0.6% on first $7K)
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Your breakdown
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When a babysitter becomes your employee
The moment you pay a household worker more than a modest annual threshold, the IRS treats you as their employer, not just someone writing checks. That is the heart of the nanny tax. It applies to nannies, but also to housekeepers, senior caregivers, and other domestic workers you control, meaning you set the hours and the work, as opposed to an independent contractor who runs their own business. For 2026 this tool uses an estimated $2,800 wage threshold; cross it with any single household employee and you owe employment taxes. This calculator adds those taxes to the wage so you see the full cost of bringing someone on, not just the take home you hand them.
A common and expensive mistake is paying a full time nanny off the books or handing them a 1099 as if they were a contractor. The IRS is clear that a nanny working in your home, on your schedule, is your employee. Misclassifying them risks back taxes, penalties, and trouble if the worker later files for unemployment or Social Security and the wages are not on record.
The taxes you owe on top of wages
As a household employer you owe the employer share of Social Security and Medicare, which is 7.65 percent of cash wages, 6.2 percent for Social Security plus 1.45 percent for Medicare. You also owe federal unemployment tax, FUTA, of 0.6 percent on the first $7,000 of wages, which caps the FUTA bill at $42 per employee per year for most employers who pay their state unemployment tax on time. The worker owes their own 7.65 percent share too, which you can either withhold from their pay or, as some families choose, cover yourself. This tool shows the employer side that sits on top of the wage.
Paying a nanny $45,000 a year
Suppose you pay a full time nanny $45,000 in gross wages for the year. The employer Social Security and Medicare comes to 7.65 percent of $45,000, which is $3,443. FUTA is 0.6 percent of the first $7,000, or $42. Add those to the wage and your total cost as the employer is $48,485 for the year. That is roughly $3,485 above the wage itself, the price of doing this the legal way.
The chart breaks the total into the wage and the employer taxes layered on top.
Schedule H and the paperwork nobody warns you about
The federal taxes are not filed separately during the year for most families. You report and pay them once a year on Schedule H, which attaches to your personal Form 1040. Because nothing is withheld from your own pay to cover this, plan to increase your estimated tax payments or your own paycheck withholding so you are not hit with a balance and an underpayment penalty in April. Before any of that, you need an employer identification number from the IRS, which is free, and you must give your nanny a Form W-2 each January reporting their wages.
State obligations are a separate layer and they vary widely. Most states require you to register for and pay state unemployment insurance, and some require disability or paid family leave contributions, so check with your state department of revenue and labor agency. A practical tip from helping families through this: a household payroll service costs a modest monthly fee and handles the W-2, the quarterly state filings, and the year end Schedule H figures. For most working parents that fee is well worth avoiding the paperwork and the penalty risk.
Can I use a Dependent Care FSA or the child care credit to offset this?
Yes, and you should. Wages you pay a nanny to care for a child under 13 so you can work generally qualify for the child and dependent care tax credit, or you can run up to the annual limit through a Dependent Care FSA at work using pretax dollars. Either route gives back a meaningful slice of the cost. You cannot use the same dollars for both, and you will need the nanny's Social Security number and the wages you paid to claim either benefit, which is another reason to keep the employment on the books.
Does the nanny tax apply if I pay through an agency?
It depends on who actually employs the worker. If you hire through an agency that employs the caregivers, sets their pay, and handles their taxes, the agency is the employer and you are buying a service, so no nanny tax falls on you. But if the agency simply refers a candidate whom you then pay directly and supervise in your home, you are the employer and the rules in this tool apply. Read the agency agreement carefully, because the placement model and the employment model are very different for your taxes.