Tax, SDIRAs & Cost Segregation
Market News & Data
General Info
Real Estate Strategies
Landlording & Rental Properties
Real Estate Professionals
Financial, Tax, & Legal
Real Estate Classifieds
Reviews & Feedback
Updated over 6 years ago, 03/19/2018
Is it considered fraud to hire your girlfriend as a housekeeper?
Okay, this may seem like a silly question, but what we're trying to do is figure out how we can get a mortgage loan to get a fourplex, but we are an unmarried couple, where one spouse is self-employed, and the other spouse stays at home with the kids (we share children). The problem is, we don't have two years of self-employment income. Even if we go the S-corp/W2 route, since the working spouse owns more than 25% of the S-corp, he will still be considered self-employed by the mortgage lenders. He cannot transfer any of the S-corp to me, because I do not have the qualifications to legally have any interest in the S-corp. Since I do not help him out with his business, I don't think he can legally hire me to "work" there either.
However, I am wondering whether he can legally hire me to work as the "nanny" or the "housekeeper", so that I can try to qualify for a mortgage with my own "income", which would be "w2 employment" and not self-employment. We live together, and have kids, but we are not officially married, so would it be legal for him to hire me as a "live-in housekeeper"? Would this somehow be considered tax-evasion or fraud? We don't want to do anything illegal, but we're trying to look for loopholes to avoid needing the 2 years of tax returns.