Schedule H Instructions 2026: Line-by-Line Guide to Household Employment Taxes

You must file Schedule H (Form 1040) for 2026 if you pay any one household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages, withhold any federal income tax from a household employee, or pay $1,000 or more in household cash wages in any calendar quarter of 2025 or 2026. Schedule H is the two-page IRS form household employers use to report Social Security, Medicare, federal unemployment (FUTA), and withheld income tax for a nanny, housekeeper, or caregiver. It attaches to your Form 1040, and the total is paid with your income tax by April 15, 2027. For 2025 wages, on the return filed in 2026, the cash-wage test was $2,800.

This guide maps every line of the final 2025 Schedule H and the 2026 draft the IRS posted in May 2026 (instructions draft dated August 19, 2026). The line numbers did not change between the two; the dollar figures and one destination line did.

Key numbers for Schedule H:

Item	2025 Schedule H (filed in 2026)	2026 Schedule H (filed in 2027)	Source
Cash-wage test per employee (line A)	$2,800	$3,000	Schedule H line A; Pub 926 (2026); SSA
FUTA quarter test (line C and line 9)	$1,000 in any quarter of 2024 or 2025	$1,000 in any quarter of 2025 or 2026	Schedule H; IRC §3306(a)(3)
Social Security (lines 1–2)	12.4% of cash wages up to $176,100	12.4% up to $184,500	Instructions for Schedule H; Pub 926
Medicare (lines 3–4)	2.9%, no wage cap	2.9%, no wage cap	Schedule H lines 3–4
Additional Medicare (lines 5–6)	0.9% of wages over $200,000, employee only	Same	Schedule H lines 5–6
FUTA (lines 15–16)	0.6% of the first $7,000 per employee	Same	Schedule H line 16
State contributions due for full FUTA credit (line 11)	April 15, 2026	April 15, 2027	Schedule H line 11
Credit reduction states	California 1.2%, U.S. Virgin Islands 4.5%	California and U.S. Virgin Islands, rates final after November 10, 2026	Schedule H instructions, Worksheet 2; U.S. Department of Labor
Where the total goes (line 27)	Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 9	Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 17a (draft)	Schedule H; 2026 draft Schedule 2
Forms W-2 and W-3 due	February 2, 2026	February 1, 2027	Instructions for Schedule H; Pub 926
Schedule H due	April 15, 2026, with your return	April 15, 2027, with your return	IRC §3510(a); Pub 926

Schedule H 2026 reference card: file if one household employee is paid $3,000 or more in cash wages, any federal income tax is withheld, or $1,000 or more is paid in any quarter; 12.4% Social Security up to $184,500, 2.9% Medicare, 0.6% FUTA on the first $7,000; W-2 due February 1, 2027; Schedule H due April 15, 2027

Save this cheat sheet — key numbers in one image.

Who Must File Schedule H?

Schedule H opens with three yes-or-no questions, and a Yes on any of them means you file. The questions are the whole filing test, so answer them before touching a number.

Line A: Did you pay any one household employee cash wages of $3,000 or more in 2026? Yes sends you to Part I (line 1).
Line B: Did you withhold federal income tax during 2026 for any household employee? Yes sends you to line 7. Withholding is optional, so this only applies if your employee asked and gave you a Form W-4.
Line C: Did you pay total cash wages of $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter of 2025 or 2026 to all household employees? Yes sends you straight to Part II (FUTA). No means stop: no Schedule H.

A household employee is someone you hire to work in or around your home whose work you control, not only what gets done but how: nannies, housekeepers, cooks, private nurses, health aides, drivers, yard workers. A lawn service with its own crew and equipment is self-employed, and a worker an agency supplies and directs is the agency's employee. The nanny tax guide covers the control test, state rules, and the child care credit; this guide is about the form itself.

Cash wages mean pay by check, cash, direct deposit, or payment app. Meals, lodging, clothing, and transit passes you provide are not cash wages and never enter lines 1, 3, or 15.

Whose Wages Stay Off Schedule H

Four groups are carved out, and the carve-outs for Social Security and Medicare are not the same as for FUTA. The under-18 row and the parent exception are where the two tests part ways.

Worker	Counted for line A ($3,000 test)?	Counted for line C and line 15 (FUTA)?
Your spouse	No	No
Your child under 21	No	No
Your parent	No, unless the parent exception applies	No
Anyone under 18 at any time in the year	No, unless household work is their principal occupation (a student's never is)	Yes
Any other household employee	Yes	Yes

The parent exception: wages you pay your parent count toward line A if your parent cares for your child who is under 18 (or needs adult care for at least four continuous weeks in the quarter) and you are divorced and not remarried, widowed, or married to a spouse whose condition prevents them from caring for the child. The carve-outs come from IRC §3121(b)(3) and §3121(b)(21) for Social Security and Medicare, and from §3306(c)(5) for FUTA.

Publication 926 vs the Schedule H Instructions

IRS Publication 926, the Household Employer's Tax Guide, answers whether you are a household employer and what you owe; the 2026 edition (dated November 24, 2025) already carries the $3,000 test and the $184,500 wage base. The separate Instructions for Schedule H explain each line, the two FUTA worksheets, and where to mail a stand-alone form. Read Pub 926 when you hire; open the instructions when you fill in the form.

When Are You Not Required to File Schedule H?

You skip Schedule H only when all three opening questions are No: no single employee reached $3,000, you withheld no income tax, and no quarter reached $1,000 once excluded relatives are taken out. Five quick cases using 2026 figures:

Situation in 2026	File Schedule H?	Why
You pay a friend's adult niece $3,400 to clean your house every week	Yes	One employee at $3,000 or more: line A is Yes
You pay a neighbor $3,350 to babysit your children in your home	Yes	Line A is Yes
You withheld $100 of federal income tax from your yard worker's pay	Yes	Any withholding makes line B Yes, whatever the amount
You pay your father $2,000 to help build a backyard fence	No	Wages to a parent are left out of line A and line C, and nothing was withheld
You pay a neighbor $3,350 to watch your children in her own home	No	Pub 926: a worker who provides childcare in their own home generally isn't your employee

The last row is the one people get wrong in both directions: the same neighbor and the same $3,350 produce a Schedule H when she works in your home on your schedule, and none when she runs care out of her own home and reports the income on her own Schedule C.

Run Your Own Numbers Through Lines A to 26

Interactive

Fill in your Schedule H lines for 2026

Enter one household employee's 2026 cash wages, the biggest quarter of household wages you paid in 2025 or 2026, and any federal income tax you withheld. The card answers lines A to C and fills in lines 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 16 and 26.

2026 cash wages to this employee

Pay by cash, check, or app. Not meals or lodging.

Biggest quarter of household wages

All household workers, any quarter of 2025 or 2026. Skip spouse, child under 21, parent.

Federal income tax you withheld

Only if the employee asked and gave you a W-4. Otherwise 0.

Who is the worker?

Schedule H total, line 26

$6,953.84

Line A is Yes: complete Part I. Your own cost is $2,587.92; $4,365.92 came out of the employee's paychecks.

Line 2: Social Security (12.4%)$4,126.72

Line 4: Medicare (2.9%)$965.12

Line 7: income tax withheld$1,820.00

Line 8: Part I total$6,911.84

Line 16: FUTA (0.6% of $7,000.00)$42.00

2026 figures from Pub. 926 (2026) and the 2026 draft Schedule H: $3,000 cash-wage test, $184,500 Social Security wage base, 0.6% FUTA on the first $7,000. Assumes state unemployment contributions are paid by April 15, 2027 and no credit reduction (Section A). One employee; for several, add their lines. State taxes not included.

Compare with a business payroll

Schedule H Line by Line (2025 Form and 2026 Draft)

Put your name, Social Security number, and employer identification number (EIN) at the top. The EIN is mandatory: a household employer cannot use an SSN in its place, and if you have applied but not received one, write "Applied For" and the date. A business owner who already has an EIN uses that number. On a joint Form 1040, each spouse who employs household workers files a separate Schedule H, so a return can carry at most two.

Line	What it asks	How to fill it in (2026 figures)
A, B, C	The three filing questions above	Line A Yes → line 1; line B Yes → line 7; line C Yes → line 10; all No → stop
Part I	Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes
1	Total cash wages subject to Social Security tax	Cash wages of each employee who met the $3,000 test, counting only the first $184,500 per employee
2	Social Security tax	Line 1 × 12.4%: your 6.2% and the employee's 6.2% together
3	Total cash wages subject to Medicare tax	Same employees, every dollar (no cap)
4	Medicare tax	Line 3 × 2.9%
5	Cash wages subject to Additional Medicare Tax withholding	Each employee's cash wages above $200,000
6	Additional Medicare Tax withholding	Line 5 × 0.9%; employee only, no employer match
7	Federal income tax withheld, if any	Only withholding the employee requested on a Form W-4
8	Total Part I taxes	Lines 2 + 4 + 6 + 7
9	$1,000 in any quarter of 2025 or 2026?	No → line 8 goes to Schedule 2 and you are done; Yes → Part II
Part II	Federal unemployment (FUTA) tax
10	Unemployment contributions paid to only one state?	Check No if that state is a credit reduction state
11	All 2026 state contributions paid by April 15, 2027?	Late payment → No
12	All FUTA-taxable wages also taxable for state unemployment?
13–16	Section A (all three answers Yes): state, contributions paid, FUTA wages, tax	Line 15 = first $7,000 of each employee's cash wages, including employees under 18 and anyone paid under $1,000, but not spouse, child under 21, or parent. Line 16 = line 15 × 0.6%
17–24	Section B (any answer No): state-by-state credit computation	Line 21 = FUTA wages × 6.0%; line 22 = × 5.4%; line 23 = credit (Worksheet 1 for late payments, Worksheet 2 for credit reduction); line 24 = line 21 − line 23
Part III	Total household employment taxes
25	Amount from line 8	Enter 0 if you answered Yes on line C
26	Line 16 (or 24) + line 25	Your total household employment taxes
27	Are you required to file Form 1040?	Yes → line 26 goes to Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 17a on the 2026 draft (line 9 on the 2025 form); No → complete Part IV
Part IV	Address and signature	Only for a Schedule H filed by itself

Form 1040-NR filers carry line 26 to the same Schedule 2 line; Form 1040-SS filers use Part I, line 4; estates and trusts use Form 1041, Schedule G, Part I, line 7. The Schedule 2 guide shows where that line sits among the other additional taxes.

Section B, worksheets, and credit reduction states

Section B rebuilds the FUTA credit when the 0.6% shortcut does not hold. Column (h) of line 17 is what you paid the state by the deadline; columns (e) through (g) add an extra credit when your state experience rate is below 5.4%. Paid on time, line 19 usually equals line 22 and FUTA lands at 0.6% anyway. Paid late, Worksheet 1 allows only 90% of the late amount.

A credit reduction state cuts the credit further. On the 2025 form, a California household employer with one nanny paid $7,000 or more checks No on line 10, enters $7,000 on line 20, $420 on line 21, and $378 on line 22. Worksheet 2 subtracts $84 ($7,000 × 1.2%) from the $378 credit, so line 23 is $294 and line 24 is $126 instead of $42. The 2026 draft lists California and the U.S. Virgin Islands with blank rates. The Department of Labor's potential 2026 figures are 1.5% for California, plus an estimated 3.8% add-on, and 4.8% for the Virgin Islands; the final rates come after November 10, 2026. The Form 940 guide explains how business employers handle the same reduction.

Worked Example: A Full-Time Nanny Paid $640 a Week

Astrid hires Celeste, an unrelated adult, as a full-time nanny and pays her $640 every week of 2026, $33,280 in all, with $8,320 in each quarter. Celeste asks for federal income tax withholding and gives Astrid a Form W-4 that results in $35 a week, $1,820 for the year. Astrid registers with her state's unemployment agency, pays every state contribution on time, and does not live in a credit reduction state.

Each Friday Astrid withholds $39.68 of Social Security tax and $9.28 of Medicare tax ($48.96, or 7.65% of $640) plus the $35 of income tax, so Celeste takes home $556.04.

Schedule H line	Entry	Arithmetic
A	Yes	$33,280 is over the $3,000 test
1 Cash wages subject to Social Security	$33,280.00	Under the $184,500 wage base
2 Social Security tax	$4,126.72	$33,280 × 12.4%
3 Cash wages subject to Medicare	$33,280.00
4 Medicare tax	$965.12	$33,280 × 2.9%
5 and 6 Additional Medicare	$0	Wages under $200,000
7 Federal income tax withheld	$1,820.00	$35 × 52
8 Part I total	$6,911.84	$4,126.72 + $965.12 + $1,820
9	Yes	$8,320 in a quarter
10, 11, 12	Yes, Yes, Yes	Section A
15 FUTA wages	$7,000.00	First $7,000 of $33,280
16 FUTA tax	$42.00	$7,000 × 0.6%
25	$6,911.84	From line 8
26 Total household employment taxes	$6,953.84	$42 + $6,911.84, to Schedule 2

Only part of line 26 is Astrid's own money. Her employer share of Social Security and Medicare is $2,545.92 (7.65% of $33,280) and FUTA is $42, so household payroll cost her $2,587.92 on top of wages. The other $4,365.92 is Celeste's: $2,545.92 of withheld Social Security and Medicare plus the $1,820 of income tax. Astrid kept it from Celeste's paychecks during the year and hands it to the IRS through her own return.

Celeste's 2026 Form W-2, due February 1, 2027, shows $33,280 in boxes 1, 3, and 5, $1,820 in box 2, $2,063.36 in box 4, and $482.56 in box 6. Had Astrid paid Celeste's 7.65% from her own pocket instead of withholding it, boxes 4 and 6 would show the same tax, but box 1 would rise to $35,825.92, because employee tax an employer pays is extra income-tax wages (and is not Social Security, Medicare, or FUTA wages).

A FUTA-only case: the teenage summer sitter

Kofi pays a 16-year-old high-school student $4,000 to babysit in his home over the 2026 summer break: $1,200 in April through June and $2,800 in July through September. Line A is No (a student under 18 is excluded) and line B is No, but line C is Yes because the $2,800 quarter passes $1,000 and under-18 wages still count for FUTA. Kofi skips lines 1 through 9, enters $4,000 on line 15 and $24 on line 16, puts 0 on line 25, and carries $24 to Schedule 2. He needs an EIN to file. He does not owe a Form W-2: one is required only for Social Security and Medicare wages of $3,000 or more, or for wages with income tax withheld.

How Do You Pay Schedule H Tax During the Year?

Household employers make no payroll deposits. IRC §3510 puts household employment taxes on your calendar-year income tax return with no deposit requirement, and treats them as income tax for the estimated tax penalty. The penalty math therefore counts Astrid's $6,953.84 as part of her 2026 tax, and paying it all in April can trigger an underpayment penalty unless withholding or estimated payments covered it.

Two ways to cover it during the year:

Raise withholding from your own paycheck or pension with a new Form W-4 (or W-4P). Under IRC §6654(g), income tax withheld from wages is treated as paid in equal parts on each estimated tax due date, whenever it was actually withheld. An October or November W-4 change still counts as if it had been paid evenly since April.
Make estimated tax payments with Form 1040-ES. The 2026 due dates were April 15, June 15, and September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027 is still ahead; the Form 1040-ES guide covers the vouchers and Direct Pay.

You avoid the penalty if 2026 withholding and estimates reach 90% of your 2026 tax, including Schedule H, or 100% of your 2025 tax (110% if your 2025 AGI was above $150,000). There is one exception: no penalty applies if nothing is withheld from your own pay and your income tax alone, before household employment taxes, would not have required estimated payments. The estimated tax penalty guide walks through Form 2210.

In conversations while building Jupid, this is the part household employers most often miss: their own salary withholding was set for income tax only, so the nanny's Social Security and Medicare arrive in April as a surprise balance due.

Can a Business Owner Report a Nanny on Form 941 Instead?

Yes. If you own a business or farm run for profit, you may skip Schedule H and report your household employee alongside your business employees: Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax go on Form 941 (or 944 or 943), and FUTA goes on Form 940. The taxes then follow your business deposit schedule, and the nanny's W-2 is filed with your business W-2s. The trade-off is quarterly reporting and deposits for a worker who would otherwise cost you one annual schedule. The Form 941 guide covers the deposit rules.

Either way, the household wages and your employer taxes on them stay personal. Pub 926 is explicit that the Schedule C or Schedule F deduction for wages and employment taxes covers business and farm employees only, never household employees.

Filing Schedule H Without a Form 1040

If your income is too low to require a 2026 return, you still file Schedule H on its own by April 15, 2027. Complete Part IV with your address and signature, and mail it with a check or money order payable to "United States Treasury", with your name, address, SSN, daytime phone, and "2026 Schedule H" on the payment. The instructions assign each state to an IRS address in Austin, Kansas City, or Ogden, and the 2026 draft moves several states between them, so take the address from the final 2026 instructions.

To fix a Schedule H already filed with Form 1040, file Form 1040-X with a corrected Schedule H attached. To fix a stand-alone Schedule H, file another one with "CORRECTED" and the date you found the error written in the top margin. Refunding overpaid Social Security and Medicare requires that you repaid the employee's share or obtained the employee's consent first.

What Schedule H Does NOT Cover

State unemployment tax. Schedule H only asks what you paid the state, to compute the FUTA credit. The state contributions themselves go on the state agency's own reports.
State income tax withholding, disability insurance, and workers' compensation. These are state obligations with their own thresholds.
Forms W-2 and W-3. Schedule H reports the tax; the W-2 to your employee and the W-2/W-3 filing with the Social Security Administration are separate, due February 1, 2027 for 2026 wages.
Independent contractors and agency workers. A self-employed cleaner or an agency's caregiver never goes on Schedule H, and a personal payment to a contractor needs no 1099-NEC because it is not made in the course of a trade or business.
A deduction. Household wages and the taxes on them are not deductible on Schedule C, even for a home-based business owner.
Workers paid through a government program or agent. If a government agency or a Form 2678 agent reports and pays the taxes for a home care recipient, the recipient does not file Schedule H for those wages.

Common Schedule H Mistakes

Taxing only the wages above $3,000. Once an employee crosses the test, lines 1 and 3 take every cash dollar paid in 2026, including the first $3,000.
Putting a student sitter's wages on line 1 but not line 15. It is the reverse: under-18 wages stay off line A and line 1 but go on line C and line 15.
Forgetting the prior-year quarter. Line C looks at 2025 and 2026. A household that paid $1,000 in one 2025 quarter owes FUTA on 2026 wages even if 2026 pay stayed lower.
Using Section A after paying the state late. A late state payment makes line 11 No, sends you to Section B, and cuts the credit to 90% of the late amount.
Checking Yes on line 10 in a credit reduction state. California household employers check No and run Worksheet 2; on the 2025 form that alone turned $42 of FUTA into $126.
Filling W-2 boxes 3 through 6 for wages under the test. If wages stayed under $3,000 and you withheld income tax, only boxes 1 and 2 are completed; the SSA rejects a W-2 with Social Security and Medicare wages below the threshold.
Carrying line 26 to the old Schedule 2 line. On the 2026 forms, household employment taxes move from Schedule 2 line 9 to line 17a.

Household Payroll Records All Year: How Jupid Helps

Schedule H is filled in once, in spring, from a year of paychecks, and the numbers it needs are scattered across checks, transfers, and payment-app payments. Jupid connects to your bank accounts and categorizes transactions automatically at 95.9% accuracy, so nanny pay, state unemployment payments, and estimated tax payments each sit in their own running total instead of a shoebox. Ask the AI accountant in WhatsApp or iMessage "how much did we pay Celeste between July and September?" and get the quarter total that line C depends on, in real time. Jupid does not prepare or file Schedule H or W-2s; it keeps the inputs ready. Try Jupid.

Before You File Schedule H for 2026

Total each household employee's 2026 cash wages and check each against the $3,000 test, leaving out a spouse, children under 21, a parent, and workers under 18 as the line A rules require.
Find your largest household-wage quarter in 2025 and in 2026 to answer line C.
Get an EIN at IRS.gov/EIN if you do not have one.
Confirm every 2026 state unemployment contribution is paid by April 15, 2027, and check the final 2026 credit reduction list after November 10, 2026.
Furnish Forms W-2 to each employee and file Copy A with Form W-3 at the Social Security Administration by February 1, 2027, marking the "Hshld. emp." box on Form W-3.
Use the final 2026 Schedule H (the $3,000 version), carry line 26 to Schedule 2, and file with your Form 1040 by April 15, 2027, or by your extended due date.
Keep Schedule H, W-2s, W-3, W-4s, and payroll records for at least four years.

Use This with Your AI Agent

If you use Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI agent to prepare Schedule H, our open-source skill gives it the rules from this guide. It tests each worker against the year's cash-wage threshold ($2,800 for 2025, $3,000 for 2026) and the $1,000-per-quarter FUTA test, applying the spouse, child, parent, and under-18 exceptions separately for Social Security and FUTA, fills Parts I to III line by line, runs Section B when state unemployment was paid late or the state is California, carries the total to the right Schedule 2 line, and sizes extra W-4 withholding or Form 1040-ES payments. Review the draft before you file.

→ jupid-tax/jupid-skills on GitHub – forms/schedule-h/SKILL.md

For Claude Code, clone the repo and run cp -r jupid-skills/forms/schedule-h ~/.claude/skills/. For the Anthropic SDK, load SKILL.md into the system prompt and the references/ files on demand. For browser-automation runtimes, filing.md covers the e-file or paper-file workflow.

Sources

Reviewed October 6, 2026 against the 2025 Schedule H and instructions, the 2026 Schedule H and Schedule 2 drafts, and Publication 926 (2026). Draft forms can change before release; use the final 2026 Schedule H to file. This article is general education, not personalized tax, legal, or accounting advice. State unemployment, disability, and withholding rules for household employers vary; consult a qualified tax professional for your situation.