New nanny

Apart from the legal issues, I think you need to be much more assertive about what you expect from her. It can be very difficult for a nanny to know what their employers have in mind. I have just had my first job go completely pearshaped because my employer, who I thought was a friend, and knew fairly well, never voiced her expectations and I was always doing the 'wrong' thing, but was never aware. This built up and became particularly bad with 'house rules'. Are the children allowed to use a dummy? Are they allowed snacks - if so, what? Do you use a naughty step system, if so, what are the rules? I would perhaps write out a sample day, with timings so that you think through exactly what you want her to do.

Agree with nanny nick re babysitter - ESP if kids are in bed it's easier to run the could send a substitute/ are Doing their own thing.
I think the area where it can be grey is If baby sitter also an employee or former employee .

Once children are in bed a babysitter can do as they like. Whereas what a nanny does is more under your control. Do run it past hmrc, would be interested to know what they say.

That still sounds pretty regular employment - you could run it past hmrc team mrsnchovy mentioned. If she is working st your home, with same pay, hours and accepting your instruction (as opposed to you dropping her at her home and letting her get on with care as you would a cm).

You could have a nanny adhoc if you hired her for some off (eg to cover a few days) but a nanny that would have any type of frequency of hours and recurrence of work.

Also don't forget (depending on how much nanny paid and what pay band is) there may be employers nic om top of the gross wage. Mr anchovys calc adds that in - it would be on top of gross wage for nanny (gross in this case includes only employees ni and Paye).

Babysitters are ad-hoc, they can refuse to come, say they are busy the evening you are requesting, say they can't do the start time you want but could do a different time.

As the employer of a nanny who has other income, you can certainly agree a Gross wage with them. Net is not normal... even nannies with contracts which give a Net wage indication may well have a Gross wage written into the contract. You don't know what their tax code will be in your employment... and their tax code could change during their employment. Agreeing a Net wage can be a bit like writing a blank cheque - so it is not advised. Nannies who in the past have worked for parents who did not seek advise about pay, may well have had Net pay agreements, but that does not mean it's the norm. Agencies I feel are to blame, if they talked about Gross salaries to nannies it would be much better as more nannies would understand about the difference.

If a nanny wants to know what they might get as take home pay, MrAnchovy's calculator is very useful in giving good figures. www.mranchovy.com/calc/

So if i employed her and paid tax it would be emergency rate and then she would get the tax rebate and not me, is that correct?

What do you mean by tax rebate? Perhaps you mean that when income tax rates change in April, she will get an increase in personal allowance?

As employer, you agree a Gross wage... so you know your cost is Gross salary + Employers NI.

Hmm, it seems that you expect to exert little control over the carer - 'like a childminder'. If she is free for instance to take your son back to her house and do her own housework etc. then it is not employment. This would be a very unusual arrangement however, and if you are paying nanny rates it is probably not what you expect. There are two other problems:

If she does take him to her house Ofsted may consider this to be childminding and require registration.

If it really was an SC60 she showed you it looks like she is not declaring her income and paying tax. The SC60 was a form used for self employed workers in the construction industry over 10 years ago which has now been superceded.

Call the HMRC Employment Status Team who will be able to give you a decision that you can rely on: it may depend on them looking in to her situation to check she is registered as self employed.

Happy new year to you too

You need to look at tests in hmrc site- if she is under your supervision , working regular hours/pay and you wouldn't accept a substitute , I would find hard to see how isn't employed. And if she says has Contract that says otherwise that cuts no ice with hmrc. They look at the facts of the case.

Think you can be self employed if you are a temp or maternity cover but working for 2/3 families isn't self employed usually. It's multiple employers.

I would be careful as the consequences for you if you are held to be an employer are punitive - paying back Paye/nic owed (plus potentially interest) and fines of up to 3k.

hmrc advice see here for advice on employment status

You have a contract and presumably expect her to work agreed regular hours at your home? If so that doesn't sound self employed to me

Have you agreed a contract with them, set up payroll, all that sort of stuff? It's a lot different to using the services of a childminder. You will find a lot of information about nannies in this section of Mumsnet Talk, so scroll down the list of message threads to find out more about things like PAYE/Payroll, Contracts, Expected Duties, Holiday Entitlemeet etc.