Nanny didn't tell us about other job...

[revellish]

Hi parents,

We had signed a contract with our new nanny and two weeks after that she told us that she has another job and we can't make use of any of her tax-free allowance and we will have to pay basic rate of tax on her net pay, which is 20%, which significantly increases her monthly salary (by about £170-£180 approximately). I am quite annoyed that we will have to absorb this cost as it is quite a massive difference. What should I do? She should have told us about her other job and I feel like I have been deceived. Any advice?

Thanks!

call her bluff and explain how the tax works. When you work for more than on employer you use up your tax free with one employer. So if you get the same gross hourly rate from 2 employers. For one of them your net(take home) will be higher. When I had 2 jobs if I worked out my net hourly rate for my second job it seamed low almost not worth doing. My boss even felt bad but when you looked at is as if you had 1 job in two locations and then it seamed much better.

OP, if, like you said, you have contractually agreed a salary in gross terms, then that is it. Her tax position could change for any number of reasons beyond your control and you would not expect to increase her salary in those circumstances would you? (eg if she owed tax from earlier years and HMRC decided to code it in to current year, if her 'second' employer provided her with a taxable benefit in kind etc)

I'd stick to the agreed gross rate, and learn from this that salary is always gross. If she doesn't like it she will leave and never find another employer who agrees to pay her net-to-gross...

I've never understood nanny agencies etc who all seem to work out salary in this cack-handed way. It makes no sense whatsoever.