Will my minor babysitter, who earned less that $3,000 last summer caring for my children in my home, have to claim this if I claim it on my taxes?

[maglib]

.removed.

[Coleen3]

Be sure to be careful answering the questions. Begin in the Personal Info section to say that your child lived with you all year. There are several qualifications that must be met. Please see below:

To qualify for this credit, you must meet all of these criteria:

• You (and your spouse, if filing jointly) must have earned income
• The earned income requirement for one spouse is waived if s/he was a full-time student or
• Disabled, if they lived with the other spouse for more than 6 months in 2017
• You paid caregiving expenses so that you (and your spouse, if filing jointly) could work or look for work
• The work/look for work requirement for one spouse is waived if s/he was a full-time student or
• Disabled, if they lived with the other spouse for more than 6 months in 2017
• You paid a caregiver to care for a Qualifying Person. The caregiver cannot be:
• Your spouse;
• Your dependent;
• Your child if they were under 19 on the last day of 2017, even if not your dependent; or
• The parent of the Qualifying Person, if the Qualifying Person is your child under the age of 13 during 2017.
• You cannot file with the Married Filing Separately filing status
• You must furnish the care provider's name, address, and (unless it's a tax-exempt organization) their SSN, ITIN, or EIN on your return.

[667527_05345]

Thank you. This is very helpful!

[Coleen3]

My pleasure.

[maglib]

@667527_05345   Updated answers about Household employees under 18 .  Note if under $2k.... You posted about under $3k.

Pub 926 says:

"Wages not counted.

Don't count wages you pay to any of the following individuals as social security or Medicare wages, even if these wages are $2,000 or more during the year.

4) An employee who is under the age of 18 at any time during the year. Exception: Count these wages if providing household services is the employee's principal occupation. If the employee is a student, providing household services isn't considered to be his or her principal occupation. "

And
"Form W-2.

File a separate 2017 Form W-2 for each household employee to whom you pay either of the following wages during the year.

Social security and Medicare wages of $2,000 or more.

Wages from which you withhold federal income tax."



So for an employee under age 18 no W-2 is necessary as long as tax was not withheld - which would be very unusual.

In the childs return they would NOT have to pay SE taxes nor income taxes as long as they stayed under $6350 in total.  They report on their tax return with other wages and  on line to the left they type HSH $xxxx  and it's included in the income.

In TT the child files in Less Common Income/  Miscellaneous Income/ Other Income Not already Reported on a W-2 or 1099/  choose yes/ Household Employee Wages /   put the amount and TT puts it in the 1040 correctly with no taxes.

I hope this helped!!!