If you need to calculate household employer taxes programmatically — for a finance app, a CPA tool, or just automating your own payroll — you can do it in about 10 lines of Python.
How do I calculate nanny taxes in Python?
Get a free API key at nannykeeper.com/developers/keys (30 seconds, email only), then:
import requests
API_KEY = "nk_live_YOUR_KEY"
response = requests.post(
"https://www.nannykeeper.com/api/v1/calculate",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
json={
"state": "CA",
"annual_wages": 35000,
"pay_frequency": "biweekly",
},
)
data = response.json()["data"]
print(f"State: {data['state_name']}")
print(f"Annual wages: ${data['annual_wages']:,.0f}")
print()
print("Employer taxes (annual):")
print(f" Social Security: ${data['employer_taxes']['social_security']:,.2f}")
print(f" Medicare: ${data['employer_taxes']['medicare']:,.2f}")
print(f" FUTA: ${data['employer_taxes']['futa']:,.2f}")
print(f" State unemployment: ${data['employer_taxes']['state_unemployment']:,.2f}")
print(f" Total: ${data['employer_taxes']['total']:,.2f}")
print(f" Effective rate: {data['employer_taxes']['effective_rate']:.2f}%")
print()
print(f"Per paycheck cost: ${data['per_paycheck']['total_cost']:,.2f}")
Output:
State: California
Annual wages: $35,000
Employer taxes (annual):
Social Security: $2,170.00
Medicare: $507.50
FUTA: $42.00
State unemployment: $238.00
Total: $2,957.50
Effective rate: 8.45%
Per paycheck cost: $1,460.29
How do I check if I even need to pay nanny taxes?
Not everyone who pays a babysitter owes employer taxes. The IRS threshold for 2026 is $3,000 per employee per year. Below that, no federal obligation. Some states trigger earlier though — California at $750/quarter, New York and DC at $500/quarter.
response = requests.get(
"https://www.nannykeeper.com/api/v1/threshold",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
params={"state": "CA", "annual_wages": 2500},
)
data = response.json()["data"]
print(f"Federal status: {data['federal']['status']}")
print(f"Explanation: {data['federal']['explanation']}")
if data['state_threshold']:
print(f"State threshold: ${data['state_threshold']['threshold_quarterly']}/quarter")
How do I compare nanny tax costs across states?
Loop through states. Useful if you're building a tool that shows regional cost differences:
states = ["CA", "NY", "TX", "FL", "WA", "IL", "NJ", "CO"]
print(f"{'State':<6} {'Employer Tax':<14} {'Eff. Rate':<10} {'Per Paycheck'}")
print("-" * 48)
for state in states:
resp = requests.post(
"https://www.nannykeeper.com/api/v1/calculate",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
json={"state": state, "annual_wages": 40000, "pay_frequency": "biweekly"},
)
d = resp.json()["data"]
print(
f"{state:<6} "
f"${d['employer_taxes']['total']:>10,.2f} "
f"{d['employer_taxes']['effective_rate']:>5.2f}% "
f"${d['per_paycheck']['total_cost']:>9,.2f}"
)
The free tier is 50 requests/day. Eight states fits. All 50 in a tight loop eats your daily quota. Paid plans go up to 2,000/day.
What about error handling?
Standard HTTP status codes:
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 200 | Success |
| 400 | Bad input — check error.details for which field |
| 401 | Missing or invalid API key |
| 429 | Rate limit hit — check Retry-After header |
Track your usage with rate limit headers:
remaining = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining')
print(f"Remaining today: {remaining}")
Ready to simplify nanny taxes?
NannyKeeper handles the calculations, deadlines, and paperwork so you can focus on your family.
FAQ
Is the API free? Yes — 50 requests per day, forever. No credit card. Paid plans ($10-18/month) unlock payroll processing, document generation, and direct deposit.
What Python version do I need?
Python 3.7 or later. The requests library is the only dependency (pip install requests).
Can I use this in production? Yes. The API is the same engine that runs NannyKeeper's payroll product. For production apps, consider a paid plan for higher rate limits (500-2,000/day).