You found someone who can cover the hours. Before you commit, settle a different question: who will be the employer?
The answer does not come from the label on an invoice. The IRS says a household worker is generally your employee when you control both what work is done and how it is done. It also says that hiring through an agency or referral list does not, by itself, decide the question. Source check: IRS Publication 926, Household Employer’s Tax Guide.
Use the steps below for an individual caregiver, a referral service, or a company that says it will place someone in the home. This is a document check, not tax or legal advice. If the answers point to your family as an employer, take the completed sheet to a payroll provider or tax professional before work begins.
1. Ask the employer question without using payroll jargon
Ask: “Who is the caregiver’s employer, and where does the agreement say that?”
Write the answer exactly as given:
Employer named on the call: ____________________
Contract page or section: ____________________
Name of the person who answered: ____________________
Then ask: “Is that same employer responsible for wages, tax forms, time records, and overtime?”
Answers to listen for:
“Our company employs the caregiver, directs the work, pays the caregiver, keeps the time record, and issues the worker’s tax form.”
“Your family employs the caregiver. We only make the introduction.”
“We handle payroll for you, but your family remains the employer.”
Those are materially different arrangements. The IRS says an agency-provided worker is not your employee when the agency controls what work is done and how it is done. Source check: IRS Publication 926, Household Employer’s Tax Guide.
Walk away from the call, not necessarily the provider, if the answer is “independent contractor” with no explanation of who controls the schedule, instructions, records, and payment. Ask for the written arrangement before continuing.
2. Mark who controls the work
Do not settle this by asking who chooses the caregiver. Ask who has the right to make each decision after the work starts.
Who sets the regular schedule? ____________________
Who tells the caregiver which tasks to perform? ____________________
Who decides the order or method of the work? ____________________
Who receives complaints about performance? ____________________
Who can remove or discharge the caregiver? ____________________
Who supplies the working rules and required records? ____________________
The IRS uses control over what work is done and how it is done as a central household-employee test. Its behavioral-control page also identifies instructions about when, where, and how to work as evidence of control. Source checks: IRS Publication 926 and IRS Behavioral Control.
Do not force every answer into one column. The Department of Labor says a worker can have more than one employer, and a family and agency may jointly employ a home care worker depending on the actual control exercised. Source check: U.S. Department of Labor, Domestic Service Final Rule Frequently Asked Questions.
If both the family and the provider control important parts of the job, write “possible shared control” and get a written explanation of each side’s responsibilities. A contract sentence saying “not our employee” does not answer the factual control questions.
3. Make the payment route visible
Ask the provider or worker to carry one ordinary shift from recorded time to completed payment.
Who receives the time record? ____________________
Who approves it? ____________________
Who calculates regular and overtime hours? ____________________
Whose name appears on the payment? ____________________
Who provides the worker’s wage statement and tax form? ____________________
Who corrects a missing or incorrect payment? ____________________
The Department of Labor says domestic service employees are generally covered by federal wage and overtime rules, subject to limited exemptions. It also says time spent on duty, including time when a worker must remain available to provide services, can count as hours worked. Source check: U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 79D, Hours Worked Applicable to Domestic Service Employment.
Do not ask a salesperson to calculate which rule applies during the call. Ask who owns that calculation and where the responsibility appears in writing.
4. Ask for the employer forms before the start date
If the provider says it is the employer, ask for a sample or written description of the onboarding path. Do not request another worker’s completed forms.
Ask:
“Who completes employment eligibility verification?”
“Who collects the federal and Missouri withholding forms?”
“Who registers and files as the employer?”
“Who gives the caregiver the year-end wage statement?”
“If your company only runs payroll for us, which employer duties remain with the family?”
The IRS household-employer guide addresses employment eligibility verification and federal employment-tax responsibilities for household employees. The Missouri Department of Revenue says employers subject to Missouri withholding use an employee’s Missouri withholding form and file employer withholding returns. Source checks: IRS Publication 926 and Missouri Department of Revenue, Employer Withholding.
Write down the actual operator, not the software name:
Payroll is operated by: ____________________
Employer account belongs to: ____________________
Questions go to: ____________________
Forms are delivered through: ____________________
A portal can move information without taking responsibility for it. If nobody will name the employer account holder, stop before providing banking information or approving a first shift.
5. Test the arrangement with one change
Use a change that could happen in an ordinary week:
“If we ask the caregiver to stay beyond the scheduled end, who approves the extra time, records it, and pays it correctly?”
Write the answer:
Approval goes to: ____________________
Time is recorded in: ____________________
Payment correction goes to: ____________________
The Department of Labor says an employee who is required to remain in the home and ready to provide services is generally working during that on-duty time. Source check: U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 79D.
A usable answer names a person, a record, and a correction route. “Work it out with the caregiver” is not a complete answer when the provider also claims to employ and supervise that caregiver.
6. Match the paperwork before you commit
Place the proposal, service agreement, worker agreement, and payroll explanation side by side. Circle every use of these terms:
Employer. Employee. Contractor. Client. Registry. Referral. Payroll agent. Joint employer. Supervisor.
Then complete this sentence from the documents:
____________________ employs the caregiver. ____________________ controls the daily work. ____________________ pays wages and keeps time records. ____________________ handles employment forms and filings.
If you cannot complete every blank, send the sentence to the provider and ask it to fill in the missing names in writing.
Stop the commitment when:
One document calls the worker an employee and another calls the same worker your contractor.
The provider says it is only a referral service, but the contract does not identify who assumes the employer tasks.
The salesperson promises payroll handling, but the agreement makes the family responsible without explaining what the family must do.
No one will identify who keeps the official time record or corrects pay.
The company relies only on a contract label while refusing to answer who controls the work.
7. Close the check with one written confirmation
Send this note before signing:
“Please confirm that ____________________ is the caregiver’s employer. That party will handle ____________________, ____________________, ____________________, and ____________________. The family will remain responsible for ____________________. Please identify the contract sections that state each responsibility.”
Save the response with the proposed agreement. If the response changes the agreement, ask for the agreement itself to be corrected before you commit.
For the larger hiring sequence, use Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring. The public pages used for this sheet are identified on the site’s Sources page.