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PM_Georgia_Okeefe t1_j6jw30u wrote

If you're talking about a contractor (e.g plumber, carpenter, etc.), it largely falls on them to report income.

If you're talking about a caregiver, cook, cleaning staff, etc, then you need to start withholding Medicare and social security if they make more than $2,100/year.

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ynotfoster t1_j6jzvzi wrote

My spouse's grandmother was quite wealthy and employed a full-time housekeeper/cook for decades. Then in came time to retire and the worker had no social security or Medicare because she was paid under the table all that time. The grandmother was wondering if she should give the woman some money to live on. I don't know what she eventually decided to do.

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lovemoonsaults t1_j6kj4j9 wrote

My grandmother used to do housekeeping jobs "under the table" and at some point she thankfully realized that she wouldn't be getting any social security that way. So that got her to take a legitimate job!

My dad keeps telling me one of his brothers is suffering the consequences because he too wasn't always doing reported labor either. They're all in their 70s now and a couple of them are disabled from years of hard work. One has their comfortable retirement checks and the other one does not due to their work not being recorded and social security not being paid.

This is such a real issue that nobody thinks about until they're 70+ and still working their asses off because they seriously cannot retire,t here's no funds there to do so!

At least your spouses grandmother realized that she was to blame for that and thought about maybe fixing it. It would have been so much easier and less of a stress on everyone if they had just been able to do it all right from the start :( Lots of those employers have no sympathy for the person in the end, since it's a "I paid you for all the work you did, should have saved better, I guess!" D: D: D:

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ynotfoster t1_j6p9jet wrote

Yes, and the scariest part is they won't qualify for Medicare if they don't get those 40 quarters of work in.

Elderly and no healthcare is pretty scary.

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