household work is taxed differently.
if a family pays you over $2,800 in 2026, they're a 'household employer' and you may actually be a w-2 employee — not a 1099 contractor. care.com is the platform, but the family is the payer.
free 2026 care.com tax calculator: self-employment tax, mileage deduction at 72.5¢/mile, federal & state brackets, and quarterly estimated payments for care.com care services 1099 contractors.
your care.com math
the form arrives. or it doesn't. you still owe.
care.com matches caregivers with families. the family pays you directly (sometimes through care.com homepay, which handles payroll/taxes). if you're treated as a w-2 employee, taxes are withheld. if 1099, you handle it all yourself.
the 'nanny tax' rules are unique. families paying over the threshold are required to treat you as an employee, not a contractor — meaning they owe employer-side payroll taxes. many families try to misclassify caregivers as 1099 to avoid this. that's not legal, but it's common. if you're a 1099 in this situation, you can sometimes recover the misclassification at tax time.
5 deductions specific to care.com
any pre-employment screening, cpr, first aid, or childcare credentials you paid for.
if you bring your own arts-and-crafts materials, books, or activity supplies for kids, those deduct.
if your role includes transporting clients (school pickup, doctor appointments), those miles deduct — at 72.5¢ each.
many caregivers carry liability — fully deductible.
childcare credentials, dementia care training, lactation consultant cert — anything that maintains/improves your skills for this work.
live-out nanny in los angeles, 40 hrs/week with one family, $42k gross (1099, misclassified)
as a 1099, you'd owe both halves of social security/medicare (15.3%) plus ca's high income tax. take-home: ~$28k. if you're correctly classified as a w-2 employee, the family pays half the payroll tax and your take-home looks meaningfully different.
care.com, specifically
am i a 1099 contractor or a w-2 employee?+
for most consistent caregiving roles (nanny, regular elder care), the irs considers you an employee of the family, not a contractor. if a family pays you over the threshold and treats you as 1099, they're likely misclassifying. talk to a tax pro about form ss-8.
care.com 'homepay' — what is that?+
a payroll service care.com offers families. if your family uses homepay, you're typically a w-2 employee with taxes properly withheld.
i work for multiple families. does that change anything?+
if you split time across many families and each pays you under the threshold, you might genuinely be a 1099 contractor (you control your schedule, methods, clients). the irs looks at the totality.
can i deduct travel between client homes?+
if you go from family a to family b in the same day, those between-job miles deduct. your commute from home to your first job does not.
also drive, sell, host, or stream elsewhere? combine on one schedule c.
your care.com 1099 income gets added to every other gig you do for the year. one self-employment return covers all of it — and miles, fees, and home-office allocations may apply across platforms.