If you’d booked a babysitter

[FanofLeaves]

And they’d completed a 7 hour shift for you, entertaining and then putting your small children to bed, and then staying up until you get in at 1am, how soon would you be paying them?

I’m a nanny but I do a bit of babysitting work on the odd weekend for extra cash. Desperately in need of the extra cash at the moment and my bank account is looking pretty bare so am currently getting pissed off looking at my bank account and willing a payment of over £100 (including the uber home I had to get due to public transport having stopped, I don’t drive) to appear.

I sent a text with the amount owed and my bank details, attaching the taxi receipt, at 9:30am yesterday morning.

I think I’m going to either have to ask for some payment to be made in advance, or charging a late fee but this sounds a bit arsey snd I’m worried it might put people off. Then again, if you are say in a restaurant or have had your haircut you pay promptly after receiving that service, you don’t pay it at some point over the next few days!

i’ll send a nudge later this morning but it annoys me that I have to do it.

So I guess my question is, say you’d booked a babysitter, how promptly do you pay them? And would you expect to be charged a late fee for taking 24+ to pay? I get it, we have busy lives, I’m a mum myself, but it just feels like a piss take. I think I’ve had one babysitting gig this year where the money has hit my account before I’m even home, all the others take up to 3 days to make payment.

I remember babysitting for one family years ago and the mum would always say help yourself to food. Except all she had was ryvita and petit filout yoghurts. So I started bringing my own snacks. She’d say oh you never take any food! I was like you don’t have any!!

The best parents would leave out lots of nice snacks. Or at least have a cupboard with some in!

I always asked for cash. Making your phone a card reader is a great idea.

We pay our babysitter (one of the nursery workers) £10 an hour cash. Plus usually a pizza and dessert in the fridge for her. Cash on the night. Return at the time we said we would

I pay before they leave.

After 8pm I pay for the taxi

What do you mean you are not self employed? Of course you are! If you are being paid to work, I hope you are declaring it otherwise you are defrauding the tax office.

You’re getting paid by bank transfer and not declaring the income?

I hope HMRC don’t get wind of this! Self employed isn’t something you can just decide not to be. If you receive income of any kind, including cash, outside of a PAYE job, it needs to be declared and tax paid. The difference with cash is that it’s not traceable so realistically you won’t be getting caught. I advise you to start submitting tax returns and paying tax on earnings that have been paid into your account. There are also penalty charges for not registering as self employed within the required timeframe etc.

No 🤷🏻‍♀️ you’re allowed to earn a certain amount of money tax free you know. I pay tax on my main job.

That’s tax evasion / fraud. This work needs submitting at the end of the tax year and they will work out your tax on it. Your 2 jobs get merged together.

or are you joking and realise this ?! If not wow

Are you saying both your jobs income combined is less than the taxable threshold?

If you're earning £100 for one single night of babysitting and it's not a one off you can be almost certain that you should have been declaring it. Kindly, I'd recommend looking into it - if the tax office get hold of this it could be serious.

The tax free amount presumably would already be accounted for on your main salary. If you were just babysitting and earning under the threshold - like the neighbour teen babysitter scenario, you wouldn’t need to do self assessment. If your main salary is to over the threshold (or will be with babysitting money added) you likely should do a tax return, state your salary and declare your extra self employed babysitting income.

This used to piss me right off as a cleaner, some people just think it's OK to leave you waiting for ages, as if you don't do the job cos you need the money

Different jobs have different t&C's. This can't be news to you.

I'd think it was odd if my decorator started playing with my kids or my babysitter painted my hallway.

I don't find it odd that two people who do two very different jobs charge different hourly rates/expect different treatment. In much the same way I tip my hairdresser, but not my dentist for example.

https://taxhelpforhustles.campaign.gov.uk/ive-got-a-side-gig/

You’re clearly not going to but you should be declaring the income unless it’s under the amounts noted above.

Thanks, I’ll take note of the above.

I’m interested in how many people leave meals and pay for taxis home for babysitters, on top of paying them (presumably) - this must really add up, can I ask how much would be typical? Do you do the same for cleaners, or any other trades and if not, why specifically for babysitters?

We just tend to have one of several local teenagers whose families we know and live doors, not taxi rides, away. So it’s never come up.

I would always have paid for the taxi for them, best scenario they take my taxi away home. I’d also provide snacks and dinner if it was over that time

I just had a babysitter for the first time in years and we paid £20/hour but rounded up so he had an extra £10 for a taxi. We got in oven pizzas for the kids so got one for him and of course he was welcome to anything else in the house. Do people really not feed babysitters?

As others have said - if earning over £1000 a year in a 2nd job /self employed you need to register as self employed and do a tax return

if you babysit every week even once then very likely you earn over £1000 as weekly earnings would be £20

every other week then £40 a sit

sure many don’t declare the cash they earn but should

if you bs once a month and earning over £80 a babysit then will earn over £1000

If you’re not stating your payment terms up front, then I think it’s unreasonable to get frustrated that people aren’t guessing your expectations.

a new payee on my internet banking needs tow factor authentication, and in practical terms generally needs the PC rather than doing it on my phone. So when someone says ‘pay by bank transfer is fine’ that implies to me ‘next time you’re doing computer stuff in the next few days’. Because to me, no one would think that’s a sensible thing to do doing when babysitter is waiting to go home, or first thing the next day.

I get that if you’ve got less stringent banking then it’s quick and easy instant, but there’s such a range in banking apps that it’s not realistic to assume everyone can do that.

If you don’t like chasing, set your terms up front. Eg. Happy to take payment by cash on the night, or bank transfer that night or following day. Bank details are…… in case you need them to set up a new payee ahead of time.

I always used to leave snacks/ Coke/ nibbles etc for babysitters.
And provide a taxi home if it was late late (post 12) and non drivers.
I do think employing local teens is very different with a different set of expectations than a nanny.
@FanofLeavesHope they pay you soon.

Why are you even comparing a decorator to someone provide childcare late into the night?

I can’t see the logic either 🤣 the decorator I know is a big burly bloke who has a van and knocks off at 5pm. I must remember to ask him if he expects his clients to fund a taxi home.

You’d be paid before you left my house, and I’d have also covered your taxi home so you didn’t have to pay for it.

They are CFs.

It's really not.

As PP have said, the £1,000 threshold limit where you don't need to register is for trading income, not total income.

You can't have 10 different trades at £1,000 each - it is only one £1,000 limit for any self employment income.

https://www.gov.uk/stop-being-self-employed#:~:text=If%20you'll%20earn%20%C2%A3,Class%202%20National%20Insurance%20payments