tate unemployment tax. To find out whether you will owe state unemployment tax, contact your state's unemployment tax agency. See the list of state unemployment agencies at the end of this Guide for the address.
The FUTA tax is 6.0% of your employee's FUTA wages. However, you may be able to take a credit of up to 5.4% against the FUTA tax, resulting in a net tax rate of 0.6%. Your credit for 2014 is limited unless you pay all the required contributions for 2014 to your state unemployment fund by April 15, 2015. The credit you can take for any contributions for 2014 that you pay after April 15, 2015, is limited to 90% of the credit that would have been allowable if the contributions were paid by April 15, 2015.
WARNING: Do not withhold the FUTA tax from your employee's wages. You must pay it from your own funds.
You figure the FUTA tax on the FUTA wages you pay. If you pay cash wages to all of your household employees totaling $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter of 2013 or 2014, the first $7,000 of cash wages you pay to each household employee in 2014 is FUTA wages. (A calendar quarter is January through March, April through June, July through September, or October through December.) If your employee's cash wages reach $7,000 during the year, do not figure the FUTA tax on any wages you pay that employee during the rest of the year. For a discussion of "cash wages," see the section on Social Security Wages, above.
If you pay less than $1,000 cash wages in each calendar quarter of 2014, but you had a household employee in 2013, the cash wages you pay in 2013 may still be FUTA wages. They are FUTA wages if the cash wages you paid to household employees in any calendar quarter of 2013 totaled $1,000 or more.
Do not count wages you pay to any of the following individuals as FUTA wages:
- Your spouse.
- Your child who is under age 21.
- Your parent.
Example: You hire a household employee (not related to you) on January 1, 2014, and agree to pay cash wages of $200 every Friday. During January, February, and March, you pay the employee cash wages of $2,600. Because you pay cash wages of $1,000 or more in a calendar quarter of 2014, the first $7,000 of cash wages you pay the employee (or any other employee) in 2013 or 2014 is FUTA wages. The FUTA wages you pay may also be subject to your state's unemployment tax.
During 2014, you pay your household employee cash wages of $10,400. You pay all the required contributions for 2014 to your state unemployment fund by April 15, 2015. Your FUTA tax for 2014 is $42 ($7,000 x 0.6%).
You are not required to withhold federal income tax from wages you pay a household employee. You should withhold federal income tax only if your household employee asks you to withhold it and you agree. The employee must give you a completed Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate.
If you agree to withhold federal income tax, you are responsible for paying it to the IRS.
You figure federal income tax withholding on both cash and non-cash wages you pay. Measure wages you pay in any form other than cash by the value of the non-cash item.
Do not count as wages any of the following items:
- Meals provided at your home for your convenience.
- Lodging provided at your home for your convenience and as a condition of employment.
- Up to $130 a month in 2014 for bus or train tokens (passes) you give your employee, or for any cash reimbursement you make for the amount your employee pays to commute to your home by public transit.
- Up to $250 a month in 2014 for the value of parking you provide your employee at or near your home or at or near a location from which your employee commutes to your home.
Paying Tax without Withholding
Any income tax you pay for your employee without withholding it from the employee's wages must be included in the employee's wages for federal income tax purposes. It is also counted as Social Security and Medicare wages and as federal unemployment (FUTA) wages.
Certain workers can take the earned income tax credit (EIC) on their federal income tax return. This credit reduces th