I’m looking into having someone come to mom's house a few times a week to help with some things that she is not able to currently able to do. She is partially in a wheelchair and using a walker due to breaking a hip and chronic back issues. I will be meeting with a woman that operates her business without other employees. She currently has 1 or 2 other clients. Would I not pay her as I would any other person hired for a particular task? Like house cleaner, dog walker etc? I don’t see how I would be considered her employer tax wise. The help mom would need, maybe some laundry, taking out trash, some meal prep and just basically human contact. This would be just a few hours a few times a week.
I think Geaton777 is correct that you should check the employment laws in your moms state. But for IRS purposes i think it depends on how much you pay her a year, there is incidental work ( mowing the lawn), work you can 1099 a person for (sub contractor, sounds like she might be this) and employees all depending on how much time you pay them for.
If she has a licensed business, you could look up in the name in either the Secretary of State website for the state she is registered in to see if the business is registered. To see if she has the proper license, you could look up the business name in the city, county or state licensing site.
I suspect she has neither, otherwise she would have made that clear upfront. Those businesses that have a license, will charge a higher rate and are quick to point out that they are licensed. As for taxes, I just asked upfront if they paid employment taxes.
How did you find this person? Does she come with references? I’d be more concerned if she comes with insurance. You might want to check with your Mom’s homeowner insurance to make sure you are covered in case anything happens to her or your Mom, while she is present.
As for your original question, I would interview multiple people for the position and see what the answer is. You could pay like you suggest, different rates for different work, in proportion to the total expected time spent….or you could pay home helper rates and adjust for the other tasks like cooking and dog walking.
Have you considered contacting social services for your Mom's county to get her assessed to see if she qualifies for any in-home help like light housekeeping, meal prep and hygiene?