Nanny/Household Employee Tax Help - Confused about Turbo Tax Entry for Household Employer Taxes
So I hired a nanny last year and used Poppins Payroll to handle all the payments and employer taxes throughout 2024. Now I'm doing my taxes and Poppins provided me with this report showing all the federal taxes I paid as the employer. They told me I need to report these as estimated tax payments on my return, but I'm completely lost trying to figure out where this goes in Turbo Tax. I started entering the info but now I'm stuck and confused about whether I'm doing this right. Does anyone know exactly where in Turbo Tax I should be reporting these household employer taxes? I'm worried I'll enter it wrong and either miss out on credit for taxes I've already paid or somehow duplicate something. Help!!
20 comments
Join the conversation
Jake Sinclair
This is a common confusion point with household employees! When you pay a nanny and use a payroll service like Poppins, you're essentially acting as an employer who withheld and paid taxes throughout the year. In TurboTax, you need to enter these payments as estimated tax payments, not as withholding. Go to the Federal Taxes section, then look for "Other Tax Situations" or "Payments and Estimates." You should find a section specifically for entering estimated tax payments you made during the year. Enter each quarterly payment with the correct date it was made. Make sure you also complete Schedule H (Household Employment Taxes) which TurboTax will guide you through. This is where you'll report wages paid to your household employee. The taxes you already paid through Poppins should offset what you'd otherwise owe on Schedule H.
0 coins
Brielle Johnson
•Thanks for explaining this! I'm in a similar situation but using H&R Block software. Would the process be similar there? Also, do I need to issue a W-2 to my nanny or does the payroll service handle that?
0 coins
Jake Sinclair
•The process is very similar in H&R Block. Look for a section about estimated tax payments or quarterly payments - it should be under the federal payments section. For your W-2 question, typically the payroll service should handle generating and providing the W-2 to your nanny, but you should double check with them to confirm. Most services like Poppins handle the W-2 process, including submitting copies to the Social Security Administration. They should have sent W-2s by January 31st.
0 coins
Honorah King
After struggling with this exact issue last year, I discovered taxr.ai and it literally saved me so much stress! I was completely lost trying to figure out where to enter my nanny taxes in TurboTax, especially since I had switched payroll services mid-year and had different payment formats. I uploaded my Poppins tax documents to https://taxr.ai and it analyzed everything and gave me step-by-step instructions for exactly where to enter each item in TurboTax. It even caught that I was about to double-count one of my quarterly payments!
0 coins
Oliver Brown
•Does this actually work with household employee stuff specifically? I've tried other tax help tools that claim to understand everything but then get confused with Schedule H and nanny tax questions.
0 coins
Mary Bates
•I'm skeptical - how exactly does it know the specific screens in TurboTax to navigate to? TurboTax changes their interface almost every year.
0 coins
Honorah King
•It actually has specific guidance for household employees and Schedule H! It recognized my Poppins documents right away and knew exactly what to do with them. It's designed specifically for these kinds of tax document situations. For your question about TurboTax navigation, it provides both general guidance (like "go to Federal Taxes > Deductions & Credits > Employment") and also specific screen names to look for. What impressed me is that when something wasn't in the exact same place as their instructions, they have this feature where you can message and get updated navigation steps.
0 coins
Mary Bates
Just wanted to follow up - I was skeptical about taxr.ai but decided to try it with my nanny tax documents since I was completely stuck. I'm actually really impressed! It immediately identified my Poppins Payroll reports and told me exactly what numbers needed to go where in TurboTax. It even explained that I needed to make sure I was entering the payments as "estimated tax payments" and not "withholding" which I would have definitely messed up. Saved me from potentially making a costly error and having to amend later. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with household employee tax situations.
0 coins
Clay blendedgen
I had a similar problem last year and spent HOURS trying to get anyone at the IRS to clarify how to properly report my nanny taxes. After being on hold for literally 3+ hours multiple times, I discovered Claimyr https://claimyr.com and it changed everything. They got me connected to an actual IRS representative in about 15 minutes who walked me through exactly how to handle the Poppins Payroll reporting in my tax software. You can see a video of how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Seriously wish I had known about this sooner!
0 coins
Ayla Kumar
•Wait, how does this actually work? Does it just call the IRS for you or something? I don't understand how a service could get you through when the hold times are so crazy long.
0 coins
Oliver Brown
•Yeah right. There's no way any service can magically make the IRS pick up faster. They're notoriously understaffed and everyone knows it's impossible to get through during tax season. This sounds like a scam.
0 coins
Clay blendedgen
•It actually uses a system that continually calls and navigates the IRS phone tree for you. When a human finally answers, it calls your phone and connects you directly to the agent. It's not magic - it's just automating the frustrating part of sitting on hold. As for skepticism, I totally get it. I was hesitant too, but it's basically like having someone else wait on hold for you. The IRS doesn't pick up any faster, but you don't have to be the one listening to that hold music for hours. When they do answer, you're immediately connected.
0 coins
Oliver Brown
I have to eat my words here. After posting my skeptical comment about Claimyr, I was still struggling with my nanny tax situation and getting desperate, so I figured I'd try it anyway. I'm honestly shocked - it actually worked exactly as described. I put in my number, went about my day, and about 40 minutes later I got a call connecting me directly to an IRS agent. The agent walked me through exactly how to report my Poppins Payroll payments in TurboTax and confirmed I needed to enter them as estimated payments. Saved me from what would have been hours of hold time. Consider me converted.
0 coins
Lorenzo McCormick
Don't forget that as a household employer you should also check if you need to file state unemployment tax returns! This bit me last year - I handled all the federal stuff correctly but completely missed that my state required quarterly unemployment tax filings for household employees. Got hit with penalties even though the amount owed was tiny.
0 coins
Carmella Popescu
•How do you figure out if your state requires this? Is there a list somewhere? I'm in California and employed a nanny last year.
0 coins
Lorenzo McCormick
•For California specifically, you definitely need to register as an employer with the Employment Development Department (EDD) and file DE-9 and DE-9C forms quarterly. California is actually one of the stricter states when it comes to household employment regulations. Check the California EDD website and search for "household employer" - they have specific guidance. If you haven't been doing this already, you might want to catch up on filings ASAP to minimize any potential penalties.
0 coins
Kai Santiago
Has anyone used the Household Employment Tax section in TurboTax? I find it super confusing because it asks for the total wages I paid my nanny, but I'm not sure if that should include the taxes I paid to Poppins or just her direct wages?
0 coins
Jake Sinclair
•You should only enter the direct wages you paid to your nanny, not the taxes you paid. The taxes you paid through Poppins go in a different section (the estimated tax payments section we discussed above).
0 coins
Zara Shah
One thing that helped me was getting a copy of the actual tax deposits Poppins made on my behalf throughout the year. They should be able to provide you with a summary showing the exact dates and amounts of each federal tax deposit they made. This makes it much easier when entering the estimated tax payments in TurboTax because you can enter each payment with the correct date it was actually submitted to the IRS. Also, double-check that Poppins handled both the employer and employee portions of Social Security and Medicare taxes correctly. Sometimes there can be confusion about which taxes were withheld from your nanny's pay versus which ones you paid as the employer. The Schedule H should reconcile everything, but having that detailed breakdown from your payroll service makes the whole process much smoother.
0 coins
Wesley Hallow
•This is really helpful advice! I'm new to the household employer thing and didn't even think about getting the detailed deposit records. Quick question - when you say "employer and employee portions" of Social Security and Medicare, does that mean I'm responsible for both parts? I thought the employee portion would come out of my nanny's wages automatically?
0 coins