The federal unemployment tax is part of the federal and state program under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) that pays unemployment compensation to workers who lose their jobs. You may owe only the FUTA tax or only the state unemployment tax, or both. To find out whether you will owe state unemployment tax, contact your state's unemployment tax agency.
If you pay cash wages to household employees totaling $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter of 2015 or 2016, the first $7,000 of cash wages you pay to each household employee in 2016 is FUTA wages. If you pay less than $1,000 cash wages in each calendar quarter of 2016, but you had a household employee in 2015, the cash wages you pay in 2016 may still be FUTA wages. They are FUTA wages if the cash wages you paid to household employees in any calendar quarter of 2015 or 2016 totaled $1,000 or more.
Do not withhold the FUTA tax from your employee's wages. You must pay it from your own funds.
