IRS Form 942 no longer exists. It was the quarterly return household employers once used to report Social Security and Medicare taxes on wages paid to nannies, housekeepers, and other in-home workers, and Congress eliminated it in 1994. Household employment taxes are now reported once a year on Schedule H, which you attach to your personal Form 1040.1Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule H (Form 1040), Household Employment Taxes If you are searching for Form 942 because of an old book, an old accountant’s note, or a template you inherited, the process it describes has been gone for more than 30 years.
What Form 942 Was
Form 942 required families who employed household workers to calculate and remit employment taxes four times a year, on the same quarterly schedule that businesses with full payroll departments follow. For a family with one nanny, that meant four filings a year for a single worker.
The Social Security Domestic Employment Reform Act of 1994 scrapped that requirement. It moved household employment taxes to an annual filing tied to the employer’s own income tax return and raised the wage threshold that triggers tax obligations, so families paying small amounts for occasional help no longer had to file at all.2Social Security Administration. Social Security Domestic Employment Reform Act of 1994
What Replaced Form 942
Schedule H (Form 1040), Household Employment Taxes, is the current form. You use it to calculate your total Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment (FUTA) taxes for the year, then attach it to your Form 1040. For the 2026 tax year, Schedule H is due April 15, 2027. An extension on your income tax return extends Schedule H too.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
If you aren’t otherwise required to file a tax return but you owe household employment taxes, you still must file Schedule H. In that case you can file it by itself, without a full Form 1040.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
You also give your employee a Form W-2 showing wages and taxes withheld, and file copies with the Social Security Administration along with Form W-3. The 2026 W-2 filing deadline is February 1, 2027.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
One alternative: if you also run a business with other employees, you can include your household employment taxes on your business payroll returns (Form 941, 944, or 943) and Form 940 instead of filing Schedule H.4Internal Revenue Service. Forms 940, 941, 944 and 1040 (Sch H) Employment Taxes Pick one path. Do not report the same wages on both.
Who Owes Household Employment Taxes in 2026
Whether you owe anything depends on two separate thresholds, and they are not the same number.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
If you pay a household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages during 2026, you owe Social Security and Medicare taxes on all cash wages paid to that worker for the year.5Social Security Administration. Employment Coverage Thresholds3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide Social Security is 6.2% each for you and the employee, applied to wages up to the $184,500 wage base. Medicare is 1.45% each with no cap.6Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Combined, that is 7.65% withheld from the employee and a matching 7.65% from you, for a total FICA cost of 15.3%.
If the employee earns more than $200,000 in the year, you must also withhold an additional 0.9% Medicare tax on wages above that amount. You do not match the additional Medicare tax.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
Federal Unemployment (FUTA)
FUTA runs on a different trigger. If you pay $1,000 or more in total cash wages to all household employees in any calendar quarter of 2025 or 2026, you owe FUTA on the first $7,000 paid to each employee in 2026.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 26 – 3306 Definitions The statutory rate is 6.0%, but a credit for state unemployment taxes typically reduces the effective federal rate to 0.6%.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 26 – 3301 Rate of Tax FUTA is entirely the employer’s expense. You never deduct it from the employee’s wages.
Federal Income Tax Withholding
Federal income tax withholding from a household employee is optional. You are not required to withhold it. If the employee asks you to and you agree, get a completed Form W-4 from them.9Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 756, Employment Taxes for Household Employees
Paying Through the Year So You Don’t Owe a Penalty
This is the trap in the annual system that replaced Form 942. Schedule H is filed once a year, but the IRS still expects you to have paid the tax in during the year. If you underpay, you face an estimated tax underpayment penalty.9Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 756, Employment Taxes for Household Employees
Two ways to cover it:
- If you work for someone else, give your own employer a new Form W-4 requesting additional withholding from each paycheck. The extra withholding builds up to cover the household employment taxes you will owe in April.
- Make estimated tax payments using Form 1040-ES. For 2026, payments are due April 15, June 15, and September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027.
You can split the two, bumping up your W-4 partway through the year and sending an estimated payment for the rest. What matters is that your total prepayments cover both your income tax and your household employment tax before you file.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
Penalties for Skipping Schedule H
Filing Schedule H late, or not at all, triggers a failure-to-file penalty of 5% of the unpaid tax for each month the return is late, up to 25%. If the return is more than 60 days late, the minimum penalty is $525 or 100% of the unpaid tax, whichever is less.10Internal Revenue Service. Failure to File Penalty Interest runs on the unpaid balance as well. The IRS can waive penalties for reasonable cause, but not knowing about Schedule H is a difficult argument when the rules are published in a free IRS guide every year.
A Note on State Taxes
Federal filing is only part of what you owe. Most states require household employers to pay state unemployment insurance, and many require workers’ compensation coverage once an employee crosses a state-set hours or wage threshold. Requirements vary. The IRS directs household employers to their state unemployment tax agency; the U.S. Department of Labor keeps a directory at oui.doleta.gov.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
So if a source tells you to file Form 942, treat it the way you would any 30-year-old instruction. The obligation is real; the form is not. Schedule H is where household employment taxes live now.