A payroll service can run numbers and file forms, but you need a written list of what it will do, what stays with you and what happens when something changes.

You found someone who can give care in the house. Now somebody has to handle wages, records, tax forms and all the small employer tasks that arrived with the help.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

You are allowed to hire a payroll service because you do not want another administrative job. Just do not buy the word full-service without making the company translate it into tasks.

The first question is not, “Can you run payroll?” Nearly every payroll company you are considering can say yes. Ask, “Which employer responsibilities do you complete, which do you only remind me about and which do you leave entirely with me?”

First, confirm who employs the caregiver

Do this before comparing payroll companies. If an agency hires, directs and pays the caregiver, the agency may be the employer. If your family hires the caregiver and controls what work is done and how it is done, your parent or another household member may be the household employer.

That distinction changes what kind of service you need. The IRS Household Employer’s Tax Guide, Publication 926, explains that a caretaker or health aide can be a household employee when the household controls both the work and how it is performed. A referral list or introduction does not settle the question.

Ask the care agency or referral company in writing:

Whose name appears as the employer on the caregiver’s wage statement?
Who sets the caregiver’s duties, schedule and rate of pay?
Who withholds and deposits employment taxes?
Who provides the worker’s year-end wage form?
If the caregiver has a pay question, who must answer it?

If the answers point back to your family, compare household payroll services. If the agency is the employer, you may not need a separate payroll company at all.

Make every company fill in the same task list

Do not compare a polished demonstration from one company with a short phone call from another. Send each company the same care arrangement and the same questions.

Tell them how often the caregiver works, whether the schedule changes, whether there are overnight hours, whether the worker drives during the shift and whether more than one family member contributes money. Then ask who performs each of these tasks:

Registers the household employer with federal and state agencies.
Obtains or helps obtain the required employer identification numbers.
Collects the caregiver’s payroll and withholding forms.
Explains who must complete and retain employment eligibility paperwork.
Calculates regular and overtime wages from the hours you approve.
Withholds the employee portion of applicable taxes.
Calculates the employer portion and tells you when money will leave the account.
Files required federal and state returns.
Produces wage statements and year-end forms.
Keeps payroll records available after service ends.
Handles corrections when hours, names or identification numbers are wrong.
Responds to notices from a tax or labor agency.

Put three columns beside the list: “service completes,” “service prepares but I submit” and “I complete.” A company that says it “supports” a task has not answered the question.

Look at the authorization, not just the dashboard

A payroll company may prepare filings under the household employer’s identification number. A reporting agent may receive authorization to sign or electronically file certain returns. Those arrangements are not identical.

The IRS guidance on third-party payroll arrangements says that using a payroll service provider generally does not remove the employer’s responsibility for correct filings and payments. That is why you need to know what authorization the company requests, which returns it can file and where you can verify that payments were made.

Ask each company:

What type of payroll provider are you for federal filings?
Which authorization forms will the employer sign?
Will filings use the household employer’s identification number?
Can the employer see copies of every submitted return?
Can the employer independently view federal and state tax payments?
How soon after filing will confirmation appear in the account?

Do not accept “we take care of it” as the answer. You need the name of the form, the person who submits it and the record you receive afterward.

Compare how the service handles real caregiving hours

A tidy weekly shift is easy to demonstrate. Care rarely stays tidy.

The Department of Labor’s domestic-service guidance explains that compensable time can include more than hands-on care. Depending on the arrangement, waiting, sleep time and travel during the workday may need separate treatment. You do not need a sales representative to interpret your exact situation. You do need the system to record the kinds of time your caregiver actually works.

Give each company the same sample week. Include a late departure, a canceled shift, time spent driving your parent during the workday and any overnight period. Ask the company to show how you would enter the hours and what it would flag for review.

Also ask:

Can the caregiver record more than one type of time in a shift?
Who approves edits after a timecard is submitted?
Does the system preserve the original entry and the correction?
Can two authorized family members review time without sharing a password?
What happens when payroll is due and you are unavailable?

A system is not easier because it has fewer boxes. It is easier when it can hold the truth about the work without making you rebuild the week in a notebook.

Find the work hiding outside payroll

Some of the most exhausting employer tasks happen before or after the payroll run. A service may calculate wages while leaving you to manage hiring paperwork, workers’ compensation questions, paid leave rules, unemployment registration and record retention.

Ask for a document that names every excluded task. Then ask which exclusions are commonly handled by the household, an accountant, an insurance professional or another provider. This is not asking the salesperson for legal advice. It is asking the company to mark the boundary of the service it sells.

State requirements matter here. IRS Publication 926 directs household employers to check state unemployment taxes and whether workers’ compensation insurance or other state employment requirements apply. A useful provider should be able to tell you which state filings it handles without pretending that federal payroll is the whole job.

Test corrections before you need one

Ask each company to walk through one mistake: you approved the wrong number of hours and noticed after the caregiver was paid.

Find out:

Who starts the correction?
Can the caregiver see what changed?
Will amended filings be prepared if needed?
Is correction work included in the service agreement?
How do you reach a person who can act, not merely open a ticket?
What records will show the original payment and the correction?

Then test an agency notice. Ask where you send it, who reads it and whether the company will respond directly or draft a response for the employer. “Notice support” can mean either one.

Check the exit before you enter

The care arrangement may end, the caregiver may leave or your family may change providers. Ask what the payroll company does after the last wage payment.

You need to know who prepares final state filings, year-end wage forms and corrections that arrive later. Ask how long you can access records, what format you can download and whether access changes after the account closes.

Downloadable reports should include more than a total. Look for hours, gross wages, deductions, employer taxes, payment dates and filing confirmations. Ask whether the caregiver retains access to their own wage records.

Choose by the work removed from your hands

Make your final comparison on one page. List the tasks that matter in your household, the proof you receive and the person who owns each loose end. Include setup, ordinary payroll, changes, notices and closing the account.

You are not looking for the company with the longest feature list. You are looking for the one that clearly removes work you cannot keep carrying and clearly names the work that remains.

If direct hiring is only one possible route, compare it with agency care before committing. The employer question belongs near the top of that decision, not in the paperwork pile after someone starts. For St. Louis caregiver programs and places to ask about local help, use Local Help for Caregivers in St. Louis. The public references behind this guide are collected on the Sources page.

You do not need to become good at payroll to deserve help at home. You need a service agreement that tells you, in plain language, whether payroll is actually off your list.

Before You Hire a Payroll Service for In-Home Care, Find Out Which Employer Jobs It Actually Takes