Can anyone tell me what I have to do for me to have a possible refund for working as a full-time caregiver for a individual and was paid cash with no taxes withheld

If you had no taxes withheld, then it is not as likely that you will receive a refund, unless you have refundable credits that you qualify for such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit. 

Were you a household employee or were you self employed? Generally, unless you are offering services to multiple clients, and if the person you are working for controls how and when you work, you are an employee. If you are a household employee and earned more than $2,700 for tax year 2024 or more than $1,000 in any quarter of the year, then your employer is required to pay the employers share of the FICA taxes. They would also need to withhold your share of Medicare and Social Security Taxes from your wages and issue you a W-2 for every year that you are employed by them. 

If you were wrongly treated as an independent contractor when you were actually an employee, then you can file Form 8919 with your return, to pay your share of the social security and Medicare Taxes. To include form 8919 with your return, you will enter income from taking care of this individual under Miscellaneous income.  To do this select the following:

1. Select Income
2. Less common Income
3. Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C, select Start
4. Select Start Next to Other Income not already reported on a Form W-2 or Form 1099
5. Select Yes to Did you receive any other wages
6. Enter the amount you earned as a household employee
7. Continue through the steps to answer the questions as they apply

Please note actual navigation may differ in your program depending on which version of TurboTax you are using

If you are self-employed, then you are required to pay the Self-Employment taxes.   You would use TurboTax Premier Online or TurboTax Home and Business to file a Schedule C reporting your income and expenses as part of your return.  If you did not pay SE Taxes in 2024, and if you plan to do this again in 2025, it may be a good idea to make  quarterly estimated payments to cover your SE taxes. Your SE tax which is 15.3% of your income is your Medicare and Social Security tax that you pay as an independent contractor or sole proprietor. When you are an employee, then your SS and Medicare taxes are half of the 15.3% because your employer would be paying the other half, but since you don't have an employer to pay the other half, you have to pay the entire amount.  If you are self-employed and earned more than $400, you MUST file a tax return. 

You do get a 50% credit for paying this, but the amount on line 23 cannot be reduced by credits for your dependents. 

 

Self Employment Taxes

The Self Employment Tax
 

There's no free money and you likely owe tax, 10-30% of your income.  And, depending on how much you made, your SSDI may be partly taxable as well.

If you work in someone's home according to their instructions, you are their household employee.  You are supposed to receive a W-2 for your wages, and your employer is supposed to pay and withhold household employee tax (this is social security and medicare tax like a normal employee).  If they paid you cash under the table, you are still required to report the income, you will owe tax plus the 7.65% social security they did not withhold.  We can tell you the procedure for this.  

Or, if you worked in your home and took day care clients according to your own interests, then you are self-employed.  You file a schedule C as a small business.  You report all your gross income (including cash and checks), you can deduct legitimate expenses (including part of your mortgage or rent, food, utilities and so on, since you are using your home for business) and you pay income tax and self-employment tax on the net profit.  We can also provide more details about how to do this.

If SSDI is your only income it is not taxable, but if you have other income (from investments, a pension, or a side job) then your SSDI might also be partly taxable. That will be calculated on your tax return.

If you owe and pay tax, you might be eligible for some credits or deductions that would reduce your tax, depending on all your tax information.  We can't tell you about a renters credit, since that is only for state income tax and we don't know what state you are in so we can't comment on the rules or amount of any renters credit. 

The income tax system is mostly an honors system.  If you work under the table and don't report the income, you probably won't get caught, only about 1% of taxpayers are audited.  But if you are audited, they can go back through all the years you never filed a tax return, and assess back taxes, interest, and penalties.