Do You Owe Payroll Taxes on Your House Cleaner?

It depends on who controls the work. If you hire an individual cleaner who works in your home on your terms, tax agencies in both the US and Canada can treat you as a household employer, with payroll duties once pay crosses certain thresholds (in the US, $3,000 in cash wages to one worker in 2026). If you book a cleaning business that sends its own staff, sets its own methods and invoices you, the business is the employer and you simply pay a bill.

This guide explains how the employee test works, the US and Canadian rules homeowners most often miss, and how to keep things simple.

Employee or independent business: the test that matters

Neither the IRS nor the Canada Revenue Agency cares what you and the cleaner call the arrangement. Both look at the actual working relationship. The main questions are about control:

• Who decides how the work is done? If you set the checklist, the order of rooms and the products to use, that points toward employment.
• Who supplies the tools and supplies? A cleaner who arrives with their own vacuum, cloths and products looks more like an independent business.
• Can the cleaner send someone else? A worker who must do the job personally is more likely an employee.
• Does the cleaner offer the service to the public? Someone with several clients, their own rates, a business name and invoices is usually self-employed.
• Who carries the risk? A business that can make or lose money on a job, for example by quoting a flat price, is running its own operation.

The IRS uses this framework in Publication 926 (Household Employer's Tax Guide). In Canada, the CRA explains its version in guide RC4110 (Employee or Self-Employed?). For a household cleaner, the deciding factor is often simple: a person who cleans your home only for you, on a set schedule, following your instructions, starts to look like your employee.

The US rules for 2026

If your cleaner counts as your household employee, these federal thresholds apply.

Social Security and Medicare (FICA)

Once you pay one household worker $3,000 or more in cash wages during 2026 (up from $2,800 in 2025), you owe Social Security and Medicare on all of that worker's cash wages. The rates are 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare, each paid by both you and the worker. You can withhold the worker's share from their pay or pay it yourself.

A bi-weekly cleaner earning $150 per visit passes $3,000 by late spring, so recurring help crosses the line easily.

Federal unemployment (FUTA)

FUTA has its own trigger: $1,000 or more in cash wages to household employees in any calendar quarter. You can owe FUTA without owing FICA, and the reverse.

Paperwork

Household employment taxes go on Schedule H, filed with your personal Form 1040. You also give the worker a Form W-2 and send a copy to the Social Security Administration, which means getting an Employer Identification Number (EIN). To avoid a bill in April, many families raise their own withholding at their day job or make estimated payments.

Most states add their own layer: state unemployment insurance, new-hire reporting and sometimes paid sick leave or a domestic worker bill of rights. New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and several other states have specific protections for domestic workers. Check your state labor department.

What does not apply

If the cleaner really is self-employed, you generally do not issue a Form 1099-NEC for cleaning your personal home. That form is for payments made in the course of a trade or business, and a homeowner paying for housework is not one.

The Canadian rules

Canada has no annual dollar threshold like the US one. If your cleaner is your employee, you are an employer from the first paycheque.

What a household employer does

• Open a payroll program account with the CRA (a business number for this purpose).
• Withhold and remit Canada Pension Plan contributions, Employment Insurance premiums and income tax from each payment, and add your employer share of CPP and EI.
• Issue a T4 slip at year end and file the T4 summary.
• Follow provincial employment standards: minimum wage, vacation pay, statutory holidays and record keeping apply to domestic workers in most provinces.

The CRA's payroll deductions calculator works out the amounts for each pay.

Quebec is different

In Quebec, provincial source deductions go to Revenu Québec instead of the CRA: Quebec Pension Plan contributions, Quebec Parental Insurance Plan premiums and Quebec income tax, plus the employer contribution to the health services fund in many cases. Quebec also extended workplace injury coverage (CNESST) to many domestic workers, and the rules depend on the hours worked for the same household. Revenu Québec has a section for employers of domestic workers that walks through the steps.

Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta each add their own workplace safety and employment standards rules. Those rules are written mostly with businesses in mind, so a household employer often has to ask the board directly whether coverage is required.

Self-employed cleaners in Canada

If the cleaner runs their own business, they handle their own CPP and income tax, and charge GST/HST once their revenue passes the small supplier threshold. You pay the invoice. Keeping that invoice is a good habit in case you ever need to show the arrangement was a business purchase.

Warning signs that you are an employer without knowing it

• The same cleaner has come every week or two for years, only works for a handful of families, and you pay cash with no invoice.
• You bought the vacuum and the products, and you hand over a list of tasks each visit.
• You pay by the hour and set the hours.
• The cleaner would need your permission to send a substitute.

None of these alone decides the question, but together they point toward employment. Agencies tend to discover the issue when a worker applies for Employment Insurance, unemployment benefits or Social Security credits and names the household as the employer.

Why many homeowners book a company instead

When you book a cleaning company, that company is the employer of the people who clean your home. Payroll, withholding, workers' compensation and employment standards are its job. You get an invoice, a written checklist and a price per visit, and none of the Schedule H or T4 paperwork applies to you.

That is the arrangement behind recurring weekly or bi-weekly cleaning: you choose the frequency and the scope, and the provider handles staffing. If you are comparing options in a city such as Toronto, remember that a company quote already includes the employer costs you would otherwise carry yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to pay taxes for a house cleaner who comes every two weeks?

In the US, if the cleaner counts as your household employee and you pay them $3,000 or more in cash wages in 2026, you owe Social Security and Medicare and report them on Schedule H. If the cleaner runs an independent business or works for a cleaning company, those taxes are not your responsibility. In Canada there is no minimum: an employee relationship creates payroll duties from the first payment.

Do you need to give a house cleaner a 1099?

Usually not. Form 1099-NEC is for payments made in the course of a trade or business, and paying someone to clean your personal residence does not count. If the cleaner is actually your employee, the correct form is a W-2, not a 1099.

Is a house cleaner self-employed in Canada?

It depends on the facts, not the label. The CRA looks at who controls the work, who provides the tools, whether the cleaner can hire helpers or subcontract, and whether they have a chance of profit or risk of loss. If the answer is still unclear, either of you can ask the CRA's CPP/EI Rulings program for a formal decision.

What happens if you never paid household employment taxes?

The usual fix is to file the missing returns and pay what is owed, plus any interest and penalties the agency assesses. In the US that means amending past returns to add Schedule H. In Canada it means registering a payroll account and filing late T4s. A tax professional can help you size the exposure before you contact the agency.

Skip the payroll paperwork

If you would rather pay a single invoice than act as an employer, send us the details of your home. A specialist follows up with a written checklist and a per-visit price for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly cleaning.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Thresholds and rules change; confirm current figures with the IRS, the CRA, Revenu Québec or a qualified accountant.