Nanny wants a net wage contract

she seems to be an idiot. How can anyone not understand how a salary works? She seems to think she is a babysitter who is handed 20.00 at the end of two hours work. Glad you didn't go with her. This is the result of nannies being paid in cash off the books for many years.

She just does not understand how taxes work

I want an adult to look after my children. No way would I trust someone that dim with them.

Yep, good move op. We are going through a grievance procedure as our nanny is adamant about being net paid and it broke the relationship totally.

Lucky escape. I once hired a nanny with a contract that stated her gross pay, off the back of an ad that also stated gross and explained that this meant "before tax". All fine, she seemed great. Then Friday came and I got a 2 page email from her about how her pay slip was wrong and I was a fraud who was stealing her money because supposedly I get some sort of tax rebate from being an employer...no amount of explanation made any difference, she refused to come back. It was utterly horrific and I lost a stack of money via not having cover. Never again!

Apologies. When I posted my previous post, for some reason a load of the updates weren't there, so my post looked like I hadn't bothered to read them. I think you we're right not to offer her the job if she already didn't trust you.

Net was common because a lot of employers didn't pay tax/ would only pay a half tax etc. Some still don't but happily as it has become less common.

Even though it was common, it's good to move with the times and be like any other adult. Also think about taxes or pension contributions etc.

Yes till about ten years ago it was common for nannies to have nett

I thought it was fairly common for nannies to have their pay quoted as a net amount. I've never understood why but I believe there are many payroll agencies that can handle the financial side.

I expect she was just asking to be paid in a way she is used to. It doesn't seem like you have got off on the right foot though so probably best for both you and the nanny that you don't take this any further.

Very frustrating! And I totally agree that mostly it works against the nanny as they don’t get advantage of changes in tax bands/ Tories bribing the population with tax cuts etc! it’s such an outdated and paternalistic way of paying a grown adult, as if you are giving them pocket money and saying don’t worry your pretty little head about those mean taxes.

Glad you didn’t go with her

Tho I would have been wary if she hadn’t worked all this year - what had she been doing

Nett was very common up to maybe 10yrs ago

Many then went to gross

But sadly still lots is nannies who state they want £10 nett etx

I also think that's a lucky escape. It does take a pretty dim person not to grasp the concept even if not interested in the five detail.

Have you calculated the net pay and it's less than she wants? In which case, she might be asking for a higher rate of pay, so the net pay she sees is what she is expecting? Obviously she may still not understand why it might not be the same every month, or change in April, but it's a starting point.

Lucky escape imo. If someone isn't bright enough to understand what paying tax involves when it is explained to them in the simplest possible terms, I don't think I'd want to give them responsibility for looking after my kids!

Good move!

To be fair, back in the day when we had nannies, it was very routine to pay them a net salary. The obvious downside was that as an employer, what we had to pay could vary. And this was before the advent of student loans, which makes things more complicated.

I can understand her reluctance - no-one wants to know that the amount they take home may vary - but her tax situation is not your responsibility, and her unwillingness to even show that she understood you didn't bode well for your future, working relationship.

Good luck with the new nanny.

That's a shame but good to find out now. Pleased to hear you had a back up too.

YANBU. Guaranteeing a net wage is madness. I've never heard of it before. You seem to fully understand it anyway but in essence you would be guaranteeing to take on liability for any other variables outside of your control that could affect her tax code. For example; HMRC decided I had underpaid tax going back 6 years once and adjusted my tax code which hit me significantly during PAYE for the following year. On her request, you would be paying tax under payments going back years.

If she can't get it, then suggest you move on as no one in their right mind would commit to that. Oh and given how totally incompetent HMRC are, having tax arrears is not unusual.

You don’t need to explain it. Tax info, including targeted to nannies, is easily available online.

You’ve made her a reasonable offer, she can accept or decline it.

If your post is a message from her, it doesn’t bode well for her interpersonal skills.

It used to be commonplace for nannies to be on net pay arrangements weirdly.
All the ones I know of (work in payroll bureau) changed contracts when auto-enrolment was introduced.

OP, tell her rough net pay on current circus, but with a caveat that this will change if x, y,z or any other material changes occur?

Tbh though you have explained yourself well and I'd worry I was hiring an idiot

Well, did you advertise the job with gross wage? And she applied and was happy with it? And now she changed her mind and wants Nett wage in her contract?
Or did you indeed advertise / discuss nett wage and now asking her to sign contract with gross amount in it?

She's totally unreasonable. Do you want someone totally unreasonable in charge of your kids? Find a different nanny.

You could say "look the chances are after Christmas there will be a new budget with an announcement of tax cuts to bribe people to stop hating the government - and if you have a set Net salary you don't get a penny of that tax cut, it is just kept by me" - that might help?

If she already thinks that you are using gross salary as a means to cheat her/mess with her before she's even started, I think it's going to be very hard to have the mutually trusting employment relationship that you would want to have with someone who's looking after your children. Even if she agrees at this stage to a gross salary she will probably be complaining at every change in her taxes and expecting you to top up any differences. You can't make her understand if she doesn't WANT to understand.

I've been trying to explain this to nannies for over a decade and there is nothing I have found that works if they can't understand that their personal tax situation affects what they get paid. They just want x amount take home and don't see things like student loan being their issue. If your prospective nanny is like that then I'm afraid you will need to keep looking.

They need to be able to understand that changes to taxation will change the amount they get as take home pay, as more or less will be going to Government.

It helps if they have worked in a nursery, shop, any size of business as they would have been paid a gross salary before.