Parent Who Paid a Caregiver Died? Who Files the Caregiver's Taxes

When a parent who paid a caregiver directly dies, any household payroll taxes owed on wages the parent paid that year generally go on Schedule H, filed with the final federal income tax return.1,2

If your parent who paid a caregiver died and you're now handling the estate, those taxes are part of a pile you never asked for, and the caregiver may be waiting on a last paycheck and a W-2. Most of this paperwork follows rules the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has written down. A few questions it hasn't clearly answered, and those are worth putting to the IRS or a tax professional before you file anything.

In This Guide

• Was Your Parent the Caregiver's Employer?
• What to Do, in Order
• The Year Your Parent Died: Caregiver Taxes Go on Schedule H With the Final Return
• If the Estate Keeps Paying the Caregiver After Your Parent Died
• The Caregiver's W-2 and W-3
• What the IRS Hasn't Clearly Answered
• If Taxes Went Unpaid or a Schedule H Was Wrong
• Records to Keep
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Was Your Parent the Caregiver's Employer?

Before you take on any of this, it helps to know whether your parent was actually the employer. You may be the one who found the aide or wrote the checks, but that isn't the test. Under IRS Publication 926, a worker hired for household work is the family's household employee if the family can control not only what work is done but how it is done, whether the job is full time or part time, and even if the worker came through an agency or from an agency's list.1

Two situations change the picture:

• An agency employed the caregiver. If an agency provides the worker and controls what work is done and how it is done, Publication 926 says the worker is not the family's employee.1
• A program's agent handled the taxes. The Schedule H instructions say that if a government agency or third-party agent reports and pays the employment taxes on a household employee's wages for the employer, no Schedule H is needed to report those taxes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) describes the fiscal/employer agent in Medicaid self-direction as this kind of IRS-approved Section 3504 agent.5 If your parent's care ran through a program like that, start with who sends the W-2 or 1099 when Medicaid pays a caregiver.

An ordinary payroll service is different. A household employer that pays a payroll service provider or reporting agent to withhold, report and pay the taxes is generally still responsible for making sure the returns are filed and the payments made, and remains responsible if the service fails to do it.1 So if your parent used one, check what it actually filed before you assume the year is finished.

If your parent hired the caregiver directly and directed the work, your parent was very likely a household employer, and the rest of this guide applies. The household-employer checklist for a caregiver your parent hires walks through what a living employer owes.

What to Do, in Order

Grief makes even simple forms feel heavy. Taking these one at a time, in the order they come due, keeps you from missing the two hard deadlines.

1. Gather your parent's payroll records and EIN. Forms filed for a household employee carry the employer's EIN, a nine-digit IRS number that is not the same as a Social Security number.1
2. Work out whether a W-2 is required for the year. The tests are in The Caregiver's W-2 and W-3 below.
3. If a W-2 is required, get the W-2 and W-3 out by February 1, 2027 for wages paid in 2026, or sooner if the caregiver has stopped working and asks for the W-2 (see below).1
4. File the final return, with Schedule H if household employment taxes are owed, by the final return's due date, generally April 15 of the year after the death, along with any of your parent's returns that were never filed for earlier years.2,1
5. If the estate paid the caregiver after the death, get the estate its own EIN and report any household employment taxes the estate owes on Schedule H with Form 1041.3,4
6. Keep the records for at least 4 years.1

Before steps 3 and 5, read What the IRS Hasn't Clearly Answered. Who signs the W-2 for a parent who has died, and whose wages a final paycheck counts as, are the two places families most need a professional's answer.

The Year Your Parent Died: Caregiver Taxes Go on Schedule H With the Final Return

This part can come as a surprise: the caregiver's payroll taxes for the months your parent was alive generally don't go on a return of their own. They usually ride along with your parent's last income tax return.

That final return is filed by the personal representative, meaning the executor, administrator or person in charge of your parent's property. The IRS says it is prepared as if your parent were still alive, reporting all income up to the date of death, and the personal representative must also file any returns not filed for earlier years. For a calendar-year taxpayer, a decedent's final Form 1040 is generally due April 15 of the year after the death, or the next business day if that date falls on a weekend or legal holiday.2

A household employer reports Social Security, Medicare, federal unemployment (FUTA) and any withheld federal income tax on Schedule H, attached to its Form 1040 or 1040-SR, and adds them to its income tax.1 Put those two rules together and the Schedule H for wages your parent paid in the year of death goes with the final return the personal representative files.2 If your parent had no obligation to file an income tax return, Treasury regulations still prescribe Schedule H, filed as a separate return.1

Whether your parent owed anything turns on the same 2026 tests every household employer faces, according to Publication 926:1

• Social Security and Medicare: owed once your parent paid one household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages in 2026, at 15.3% of cash wages, half from the employee and half from the employer.1
• Federal unemployment tax: owed once your parent paid household employees a total of $1,000 or more in cash wages in any calendar quarter of 2025 or 2026.1
• Family members: wages paid to the employer's spouse, child under 21 or parent are not counted as Social Security, Medicare or FUTA wages, and an employee under 18 is left out of Social Security and Medicare wages unless household work is that person's main occupation (Publication 926 sets one narrow exception for a parent).1

If you hold your parent's power of attorney, it doesn't make you the personal representative. The IRS says a power of attorney is not acceptable evidence of appointment as personal representative.6 Separately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau tells agents that their authority under a power of attorney ends at the death. State law sets the details.7 If no personal representative has been appointed, a surviving spouse filing jointly signs the final return, and with no spouse either, the person in charge of your parent's property signs it as "personal representative."2 The hub on what to do when a parent dies covers the rest of the final return.

If the Estate Keeps Paying the Caregiver After Your Parent Died

Some families keep a caregiver on for a while after a death, out of loyalty, to help a surviving parent, or simply because the house still needs someone. When the estate itself pays a household employee, the estate can owe the payroll taxes on those wages.4

The IRS treats the estate as a taxable entity separate from your parent. Income up to and including the date of death goes on the final Form 1040, and income received after it goes on the estate's own return, Form 1041, made by the estate's fiduciary. Every domestic estate with gross income of $600 or more in a tax year must file Form 1041. IRS Publication 559 calls applying for the estate's EIN the first thing a personal representative should do, and an EIN applied for online is generally issued immediately.3

An estate can owe household employment taxes on wages it pays a household employee, and reports them on Schedule H attached to its Form 1041.4 How that works, under the 2025 IRS instructions:

• Which tests apply: The 2025 Instructions for Form 1041 send an estate to Schedule H if it paid any one household employee $2,800 or more in cash wages in 2025, withheld federal income tax at an employee's request, or paid household employees $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter of 2024 or 2025. Those are 2025's figures. For wages paid in 2026, Publication 926 sets the per-employee threshold at $3,000.4,1
• Your parent's wages count too: The Form 1041 instructions say that, for the per-employee cash-wage test, the estate adds the cash wages it paid to the cash wages paid to the same employee in the same calendar year by the household of the person who died. So a caregiver who earned part of the year's wages from your parent and part from the estate can cross the line even if neither amount does alone.4
• The estate's name and number: On a Schedule H attached to Form 1041, the employer name must match the estate's name on the return, and the filer enters the estate's EIN, not a Social Security number.4
• Where the tax lands: The 2025 instructions carry the household employment taxes from Schedule H to Form 1041, Schedule G, Part I, line 7.4

Whether a particular payment after the death belongs to the estate is one of the questions in the section below, so settle that before the estate files.

The Caregiver's W-2 and W-3

The caregiver was there for your parent, often through the hardest months, and the W-2 is how that work shows up on the caregiver's own tax return. Getting it out on time is one concrete thing you can do for them.

For 2026, a household employer must file a separate W-2 for each household employee paid $3,000 or more in Social Security and Medicare wages, or any wages from which federal income tax was withheld. If no W-2 is required, the IRS encourages giving the employee a receipt showing the dates worked, the wages paid and a general description of the work.1

For wages paid in 2026, the caregiver's copies of Form W-2 (Copies B, C and 2) are due February 1, 2027, and Copy A goes to the Social Security Administration with Form W-3 by February 1, 2027, on paper or electronically.1

If the caregiver stopped working when your parent died, there may be an earlier clock. When an employee stops working before the end of 2026, the employer can give the W-2 immediately after the final wage payment. If that employee asks for Form W-2, the employer must give it within 30 days after the request or the last wage payment, whichever is later.1

What the IRS Hasn't Clearly Answered

We looked through the IRS guidance that governs household employers and deceased taxpayers and couldn't find a clear answer to these questions. They matter, so don't guess. Ask the IRS or a tax professional (a CPA or enrolled agent who handles estates) before you act on any of them:

1. Whose wages is the last paycheck? If your parent owed the caregiver for work done before the death and the estate paid it afterward, we haven't found a rule saying whether that pay belongs on your parent's Schedule H or the estate's.
2. What if the caregiver stays on for a surviving parent? The control test looks at who directs the work, which may point to the surviving parent as the new employer. We haven't found IRS guidance that applies the test to this situation.
3. Who signs the W-2 and W-3 for a parent who has died? We haven't found an IRS instruction that names who signs them.
4. Can your parent's own EIN still be used after the death? The estate gets its own EIN for its own returns, but we haven't found guidance on whether your parent's household-employer EIN may go on the year-of-death W-2.
5. Who keeps the caregiver's I-9 and payroll records? The retention periods are clear (see below), but not who holds the records once the employer has died.

If Taxes Went Unpaid or a Schedule H Was Wrong

Sometimes going through a parent's papers turns up a year when the caregiver was paid but nothing was filed. That's a hard thing to find, and it isn't your fault. Publication 926 says an employer who was required to withhold and pay employment taxes and didn't will generally be liable for the taxes that should have been withheld and paid, and interest and penalties can also be charged.1 As noted above, the personal representative must also file any of your parent's returns that were never filed for earlier years.2

If a Schedule H was filed with a Form 1040 or 1040-SR and turns out to be wrong, it's corrected on Form 1040-X with a corrected Schedule H attached, and the employer will generally also need to file a W-2 (if none was filed) or a W-2c.1 A mistake on a Schedule H filed with the estate's Form 1041 is corrected on an "Amended" Form 1041 with a corrected Schedule H.4

Those correction routes are for a Schedule H that was filed. For a year when none was, have a tax professional look at it before you file.

Records to Keep

Once the forms are in, the records still matter. A household employer must keep its employment tax records for at least 4 years after the due date of the return that reports the taxes, or the date the taxes were paid, whichever is later.1

The caregiver's Form I-9 has its own rule. A household employer keeps the caregiver's Form I-9 as long as the person works there, and afterward until 3 years after the date of hire or 1 year after the job ends, whichever is later. The employer keeps the I-9 itself; it isn't mailed to federal immigration agencies.8

Learn More

Find personalized help sorting out your late parent's caregiver taxes at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.