How do I get taxes already paid for my household employee refunded back to her?

[acsing]

We had an after-school nanny for part of last year. We thought we were going to pay her more than $2600 so we set up an account in SurePayroll and she (and I) had payroll taxes taken out automatically. However, we ended up only paying her around $2400 so I canceled the the SurePayroll account to do all the W2 information for myself. I was debating not even doing the W2 but because I wanted her to get the payroll taxes back that were already paid, I went to the Social Security Website to use their free W2 online form.

The problem is when I put in the wages at $2400, it's telling me to put $0 since it was less than $2600 but when I change that to $0, I get an error message because the money I entered into boxes 2, 4, and 6 are not $0. I called SurePayroll and they said they can't help. Any thoughts as to how to approach this? Thanks in advance.

[ThomasM125]

I believe you mean you paid in taxes for your household worker and you want them back. They actually get credited towards your personal estimated taxes, so you will get them refunded when you file your form 1040. Since the wages are less than the filing requirement for schedule H (household employment taxes), you won't pay any payroll tax for your helper when you file your form 1040, so the estimated tax you paid in will be applied to  your income tax, effectively having it refunded to you.

[acsing]

Thanks for the reply. I actually am more concerned about making sure my previous nanny gets the taxes she paid back from the government since she didn’t make more than $2600 and SurePayroll sent in a few hundred dollars for taxes from her paycheck. I was planning on submitting a W-2 for her but I’m running into the issue where I can’t accurately fill out the W-2 form on the Social security website because of those error messages I was getting. Any insight on that?

[acsing]

Ah I see where I mistyped things. I paid payroll taxes but she paid income tax and I want to make sure she gets her income tax back that she paid 

[AmyC]

When you file the w2 for her, you will have her wages and federal tax paid. The other boxes will be zero since less than $2600.  She will file her w2 on her tax return for her federal wages paid and federal income tax. If you withheld other taxes, Medicare and Social Security, you should refund them to her since you will be getting a refund on your taxes for those payments.

[acsing]

I was quite excited to follow this advice but I was not able to e-file. Here are the permutations I tried:

1. Put $0.00 for all fields 1-6. Did not let me efile because it says you don't need to file if everything is 0.

2. Put $2370.48 for fields 1,3, 5 and $0 for fields 2, 4, 6. Did not let me efile because it said if less than $2600 just put $0 for fields 1, 3, and 5.

3. Put $0.00 for fields 1, 3, 5 and $75.75 for field 2, $147.11 for field 4, and $34.41 for field 6. Did not let me efile because it says if there is money in 2, 4 and 6, I need to have more than $2600 in fields 1, 3, or 5.

Should I contact the IRS to get guidance? What else can I do here?

[PatriciaV]

If you paid wages and had taxes withheld, you should complete Boxes 1 through 6 on Form W-2. There shouldn't be a minimum limit for Box 1 as long as total wages are over $600.

If you're using a TurboTax self-employed or business product, you can file a W-2 using Quick Employer Forms. This service is available from within the TurboTax software.