Nanny to Au Pair... contract?

[Strix]

If you dropped from a full time live in nanny to an au pair, did you continue with a contract? How did the contract differ? Did you continue with nannypaye/payroll company?

We are getting an au pair for four months, so quite a short contract. And I'm deciding whether I need to continue with all the usual employer responsibilities, or I just pay her and skip the paperwork.

If you pay under the threshold and she doesn't have another job you don't need to do the paperwork/payroll so won't need a company. As long as you note down what you paid when and the fact it was under the LEL there's no official payroll stuff to do as AP isn't liable to pay tax or NI on earnings.

If you have a good basic contract I would keep it but change hours, pay, duties etc and add something about you being her primary employer.

Unless you're recruiting an A2 national an AP is no different to a very PT live in nanny who doesn't earn enough to pay tax.

She is an EU citizen.
She won't have another job and my existing nanny contract says nanny au pair needs my permission to get another job (although if she wanted to get one that didn't conflict with mine I certainly wouldn't stand in her way).

Yes, pay is below threshold.

But, technically she is still an employee I think. Do I not need to register her somewhere as my employee? And I assume the contract is still a legal obligation?

Whether she's an employee or a worker is up for debate but either way it makes no difference as presumably you only have 1 person on payroll!

Yes a written statement of employment such as a contract is an obligation but unless she gets another job you don't need to register her as an employee as I read it. HMRC say you don't need to operate PAYE under the LEL but worth a call to see if you need to register as an employer and file null returns? My feeling would be that until/unless she has another job you don't need to. Guidance on registering is http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/intro/register.htm here.

Have you found someone then?

here?

I asked about this a couple of months ago and was sent a factsheet about au-pairs, i can send it to you if you would like?
Basics of it were that if she earns over £97 in any week over the year the whole year has to be registered. The thing i didnt like about it is that once she leaves you dont know what she earns and so you dont know if you need to register it or not. my thoughts were to just do it as there werent any taxes to pay anyway and i would rather be safe than sorry. but as it turns out i stuck with my nanny so didnt need to worry after all.

She's not going to make £97 in any one week.

Frak, I think I have found someone, pending DH's approval. But, I think there are more questions/ answers / correspondance / references / etc. to read through than he will have patience for. So he will probably just leave it up to me.

If she earns under £97 per week you do not need to register, what she does after you is her own business and irrelevant as to whether or not you need to register.

As an employee (technically a "worker") she is entitled to written terms of employment.

She isn't going to be employed by anyone in the UK during or after her time with me. She has trained as a teacher in another EU country and needs something to fill her time until her first placement begins in February. So our job fills her time perfectly.

I thinkI will do a proper contract, transfer her money each week from my bank account to her soon-to-be UK bank account, cancel the nannypaye subscription, and be done with it.

Have I missed anything?

Current nanny will be due a P60 for 2010/2011 tax year, so check with nannypaye how that gets done. Also check how long you need to continue with quarterly returns for current nanny, even once they no longer work for you.

I agree with contract-yes, Nannypaye-no, register as employer-no
Would add 1) au pair pack containing info on local English courses, maps, ideas for places to go in time off (they have more time to themselves than nannies)
2) really detailed job description- our au pairs needed a lot more direction than our nannies.
3) find out a bit about other local au pairs to introduce yours to, this wards off the dreaded home sickness and gives them reasons to get out of the house during non-work hours

Regarding P60 etc, Nannypaye sorted out that (and other issues raised by the IR) months after my last nanny left. I was most impressed!