Assume you are a CPA specializing in tax accounting for individuals in your community. One of your clients, Alicia Evans, has sent you the following email. As you know, I have recently returned to work full time and need to hire someone to help me with house cleaning. I need to know what, if any, obligations I will have for withholding social security. Will I have any other tax or reporting obligations? I am considering the following possibilities:

• Hiring an individual who has a business license and is self-employed as a contractor. This person would clean my house weekly. In return, I would pay this person $100 a week for 50 weeks of the year.

• Using a cleaning service, who would send one of its employees to my home. I would use this service biweekly at $125 per visit, for a total of 26 visits per year.

• Hiring my neighbor, who does not have a business license. She would clean my house biweekly, and I would pay her $75 each visit, for a total of 26 visits each year. I have one more question. Can I deduct any of the above expenses for house cleaning from my own income tax? After all, if I were not working, I would not need to hire someone else to clean my house. It seems to be that house cleaning should be a legitimate business expense. Please send the answer to the above questions to my home by registered mail. You have my address on file. Write a letter to Ms. Evans in which you answer her questions and make a recommendation of how she should proceed.