Should parents pay nanny's for the nanny to take them out?

It's all been said but any costs associated with your work should not be your burden. We've always had nannies and I've always employed them and I've provided a budget each week for outings. We would provide 200 per week to our nanny, and then if they were going somewhere special we would pay the additional.

Also be careful with self employed, you should not be working permanently as a single job. Read up on the criteria.

OP - to be clear - posters are not saying YOU are evading tax or doing anything you shouldn’t - but your Employer is. You are doing yourself out of lots of rights (holiday pay, sick pay, mat leave) by agreeing to work in this way.

she sounds a chancer and you should look for another job.

On your specific query, I’m unclear what the client is saying that you should claim the expense back through tax. Do you mean that you should invoice her monthly for the expenses so she gets the 20% tax free amount? Otherwise this doesn’t make sense.

www.nannytax.co.uk/self-employment

And OF COURSE they should be paying for their kids to go places

urgh, I hope posting this has given you an insight as to how shitty they are as people AND parents

Hi! I am self employed (not a nanny though). If you have only one client, and work regular hours and get the same pay every months, then HMRC can and will argue that they should employ you. Maybe not in the first tax year but in the second (happened to my friend who was an IT consultant but basically a member of staff). Plus you are losing out on paid annual leave and employer’s pension contributions. The parents sound like CF. I often have babysitters in the holidays and always pay for activities (cheap ones I should add), the odd ice cream or snack in rhe summer and public transport or petrol costs.

But where’s your workplace pension?

are you at least charging them MORE than an employed nanny to cover for the additional expenses like NI and tax that they’re not paying?

you need to find someone else to work for. Their attitude stinks!

they are mean and you are being taken for a ride.

You wouldn’t get those expenses back on your tax return! You might get the tax back but not the entire expense.

You can’t. To protect people like the OP you can’t have a self employed nanny unless they are working with three families or more and they are deciding their own hours. Like an emergency nanny for example.

As a mum of three, days out are expensive! And that’s even just small local farms, everything adds up so quickly. I’ve never been a nanny nor used one, but even if my kids go round a friends house and parent suggest taking them out, I’d be offering to pay to cover my child’s costs. These parents are absolutely taking the mickey and it’s not fair they expect you to entertain their children with no budget. I hope they change their mind or you find another job, especially as you’re getting no holiday/sick pay or pension contributions…good luck

IR35 means you work for an umbrella company or you set up a company isn't it?

When we had a nanny, we employed her and paid her wage monthly and her expenses weekly - mainly travel and food /activities. Sometimes I would give her money in advance for this stuff but mostly paid her weekly and she was happy with that.

We used payefornannies.co.uk so everything was transparent and above board

They are being CFs

Of course they pay. I've had nannies and you pay all the expenses they incur looking after/entertaining the child.

For the CEST tool to prove I was entitled to be self employed I need to work for a variety of clients, prove I advertise my services on a regular basis, to be prepared to provide an alternate if I am unable to do a job ( I belong tk WhatsApp groups for this), provide my own equipment and insurance, set my own hours and negotiate my rates with clients, send invoices for bills.

You should be reimbursed for activities/given the money for them but the parent has to approve it . You can’t just go around spending other people’s money for them. Clearly there isn’t the budget for expensive things (she’s probably already paying loads in your wages, which obviously you deserve but will likely be hard) so you do need to find free cheap /activities and if you can’t do that then find a new job.

Ask her if she genuinely believes the government pays for thousands of children with nannies, to go to the cinema and eat ice cream

So much wrong with this, but in particular even if these were tax deductible expenses, you could only "claim bacK" the tax you pay on those costs, so around 22%. The rest would come out of your own pocket.

Having said that, days out are expensive so I can see why she doesn't want to pay for them. Just do free stuff - most parents have to do that all Summer anyway.

Every single nanny my friends or I had were paid for expenses, be that ticket entry, drinks etc. We had a vague rule that there was one big expense a week on holidays like entry to an adventure park and other than that she used her discretion. Obviously we paid for her and the children.

On self employment versus employment, they are having a laugh because they’re avoiding a lot of payroll that is normally paid, and avoiding having to pay your pension.

Only work for families that can actually afford it IMO.

The problem is that as a nanny working for one family, you don't meet the legal criteria to be classed as self employed.

The family are getting a good deal as they won't be paying employers NI contributions and perhaps also not sick pay or holiday pay. Even if they do they won't be paying the employer's tax associated with this.

Quit, and put warning messages about them on all local nanny networks/WhatsApp groups.

DS had a notebook that lived in the kitchen. Nanny would write down mileage and any expenses and they settled every week. When my DC were growing up I could only afford free trips anyway.

Find a new job pronto tonto.

As someone who work as a nanny for 17 years - absolutely DO NOT pay a penny towards a day out. The parents should be paying for you and the children, including reimbursement of any petrol used (if using own car). Obviously don’t take the piss and keep outings to a budget, thinking up free/cheap activities for the majority of days and only doing more expensive trips once a week/fortnight (or whatever works for them and you).

At the end of the day the mother/family cannot afford a nanny or don't want to spend the correct money on a nanny.
Irrespective of the incorrect self employment status in this case, I find the mother to be very difficult and can easily imagine a scenario where she will delay your pay or not pay you at all.
Similar to starting a job or a supply contract for a company which is very likely go bankrupt, nobody would take the risk.
Your status is not clear. Are you a nanny just in name when in fact you are providing a child minder service? Are you self employed just in name when in fact you should be employed? You need to clarify these things yourself then raise them with the mother. She hasn't got your best interest at heart. All she cares about is to limit her costs for a very valuable service. I suspect she knows the rules but is lying to you giving you false advice in order to avoid paying properly.
As far as HMRC are concerned you are fully responsible for being truthful in your declarations to them and following the rules. You cannot claim you didn't know the rules or the mother told you to do certain things. It is you personally registering as self employed when, in reality, you may not meet the criteria for self employment. It is your responsibility to make sure you are doing everything correctly.

Forget about days out, please look for a different family and make sure all the setup is above board. The current situation is not fair on you at all.

This is a nurse who gets some funding so no they are not 'loaded'.

OP You should not be out of pocket but it might be that your employer hasn't budgeted for outings.

I agree with all the other advice about clarifying your position.

Sounds like that are taking you for granted and are very tight with their money too. Don’t fall for it. Unless you’re very happy there I’d look for another family.

I am a carer on Carers Allowance and when my son is taken out by 're agency I pay for any entrance fees food and expenses etc