It’s everyone’s favorite day of the year.  Tax day 2014 is upon us!  Woohoo, right?

Okay, I know, nobody gets excited about tax day, but, if you use a  true In-home Care company for your elder care needs in Oklahoma, your tax worries would be significantly less.  There are a lot of benefits to using a company like our family home care company (bonding, on-the-job injuries, drug testing, background checks, reference checks, reliability.), but today, let’s focus on the tax day reasons to use a full service in-home care company instead of a “caregiver finder” service.

Before we get started, let’s give the disclaimer that I’m not an accountant, and nothing written here is legal or accounting advice.  You should consult a professional on all matters discussed below.

1. We take care of ALL OF our caregivers employment tax issues.  We withhold taxes from the paycheck of the caregiver, because the caregiver is our employee.  They get a W-2 tax statement just like every other employee in our great nation and we report their income to the IRS just like every other employer does.  If you use an agency that “finds” a caregiver for you, but then has you pay them yourself, then this tax reporting burden falls on you.  I have personally talked with someone who didn’t file the correct paperwork for the caregiver they were paying and the nightmare that descended on both the family and the caregiver when the IRS found out about the unreported income sure didn’t sound like a fun experience!
2. It is possible that your invoices from our company can be counted as a tax deductible medical expense.  (This really is where you better talk to an accountant!)  If you get audited and show the IRS a check written to some random person and call it a medical expense, you are probably going to have a hard time proving your claim.  If you show them a check written to a licensed home care company, an accompanying invoice, and a copy of the care plan that a Nurse created for this service, you’ve got a better chance of having your tax returns stand up to scrutiny.
3. No need to worry.  The fact that our caregivers never receive any money from you makes it impossible for the IRS to ever claim that you were the employer of the caregiver.  That means that if anyone (our company or the caregiver) ever has an issue with the IRS, you won’t be involved.  How much is the knowledge that the IRS is never going to knock on your door because you made a mistake worth?

As I said, there are a many huge reasons why using an In-home Care company instead of hiring someone privately is a good decision.  On tax day, above all others, the differences are very clear.