If you employ a nanny, housekeeper, or caregiver in 2025, year-end is when your payroll taxes and reporting get finalized. Here’s a short 2025 checklist of what household employers are responsible for, plus what to expect if you use Poppins Payroll.
1. Confirm your worker is a household employee
Most domestic workers are employees, not contractors. Most domestic workers are employees, not contractors. If you control the schedule and direct how the work is performed, the worker is generally considered your employee under IRS rules and should be treated as a W-2 employee.
For Poppins users: Your employee is already classified correctly — Poppins only supports W-2 household employment.
2. Make sure employee information is accurate
Before W-2s are prepared, confirm:
- Legal name
- Social Security Number
- Current address
For Poppins users: If you’re an active customer or elected for year-end document services upon account termination, you’ll get a prompt in December to review and update this information, or login here to do so. If your employee recently moved or married, confirm details together.
3. Report any wages paid before joining your payroll service
If your employee worked for you earlier in the year, before you started using payroll software, those wages must still be reported. If you would like support from Poppins on past wages, please contact us.
For Poppins users: Submit past-year wages by Dec 19 so Poppins can include the full amount on the W-2. Contact us if you need to make any payroll adjustments by Dec 19
4. Understand your tax responsibilities
Household employers are responsible for:
- Social Security & Medicare taxes (FICA), when wage thresholds are met
- Federal unemployment (FUTA), if wage thresholds apply
- Optional federal income tax withholding (if you and your employee agree)
- Providing a W-2 and filing required information with the Social Security Administration
For Poppins users: Poppins calculates FICA, FUTA, and withholding throughout the year and handles required filings on your behalf automatically.
5. Prepare for year-end forms
You must provide your employee a W-2 and file W-2/W-3 with SSA by the deadline.
For Poppins users: If you’re an active customer or elected to receive year-end documents, Poppins automatically:
- Generates W-2 and Schedule H in mid-January if you elected for us to do so
- Files W-2/W-3 with SSA if you elected for us to do so
- Uploads your employee’s W-2 to their employee cubby
- Uploads a copy of the W-2 and Schedule H to your Filing Cabinet
No manual forms needed.
6. Keep year-end records organized
Keep:
- Pay records
- Withholdings
- Copies of W-2s
- Any benefits provided
These are helpful for your own tax return and Schedule H.
For Poppins users: Your wage history and tax records are stored in your Filing Cabinet — no spreadsheets needed.
At-a-glance employer year-end to-do List for Active Poppins users
Before January
- Confirm employee name, SSN, and address in your employer cubby
- Report any past wages to Poppins by Dec 19. Contact us for a quote
- Make sure your payroll records are up to date. If you need to make any corrections to payroll, please reach out to Poppins by Dec 19
Mid-January
- Expect W-2s and Schedule H (Poppins: automatically uploads these if you elected for us to do so )
January - April
- File your personal return and attach Schedule H if required
- Keep records for future verification
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