Tax question - childcare cash in hand job

[nannync]

I've tried to find out more info about this online but I'm struggling. Any insight would be much appreciated.

I am a full time student and for the last few months have been helping out a neighbour with childcare. I have been having the baby at her home so no Ofsted related issues, I am not a childminder.

She pays me around £180 per week via bank transfer. It's a very casual arrangement, some weeks she doesn't need me at all so I don't get any money, other times she needs me for more hours, others for less, so it's very variable.

I'm not self employed and don't have a contract with her or anything.

Should I be declaring this money? When I've gone online to find out what I should be doing it talks a lot about contracts and clients and businesses and it doesn't really apply to our set up. I would be earning under the annual tax free amount overall for the year.

I don't want to get myself or her in trouble but I'm just not sure what I need to do. I'm too embarrassed to ask her directly as she might think I already have this all sorted out. I think as I'm not employed by her it's my responsibility to sort this anyway.

Please help!

Yes I believe if you are earning under the point where you would need to pay tax (around £12k a year) you don’t have to register with HMRC.

The only thing that contacting HMRC is likely to do is to get your "employer" into trouble for not paying employers NI, pensions etc

Unless you want to upset them I wouldn't bother. If you're worried about the NI/pension then speak to them. Though as others have said they probably won't want the hassle of the paperwork

Technically you’re not self employed as you only work for one person but as you’re available as a babysitter then other people could hire you.
Contact HMRC, ask for self assessment registration ( you can do it online) then you fill in a tax return. Keep money back to pay any tax!! And you can claim against tax for laundry, special clothing ( eg a set or two of clothes to wear that can be painted, puked on etc..)

If you earn less than £1,000 a year you do not have to register as self-employed. Any more than that, you do, and if you don't register, than the penalties and consequences can be horrendous.

It is easy to register, and all you do is fill in an online tax return once a year. If you have a job, then that goes on the online return as well, and any other information they need like interest from savings. It automatically calculates whether any tax is due. If your earnings are below the tax threshold then you won't pay tax.

In theory if you only work for one client, then you should have a contract and all that jazz, and you may not be considered self-employed in that context. In practice, at the moment, you have only one client, but you could work for other people if you wanted to. So if you even do only one babysitting session for a few quid for somebody else in the year, then you will be fine.