Self employed nanny help please!

[Smileyface1991]

Hello I've been for an interview and it seems the parents would quite like me to be self employed!? im mot sure if i can even be a self employed nanny but when I mentioned about them paying my tax and ni as employers they thought it would be a lot of hassle for 2 days! How does being self employed work? Would it be worth while? I'd be getting paid £8/£8.50 an hour. I know I wouldn't be entitled to holiday/sick pay but what if it was agreed in a contract?

Also it would be my second job so how is tax worked out if they were my employer? I am under my tax allowance in my first job so could I split my tax allowance between the too so the tax on my nanny job would be lower?

thanks and sorry for so many questions!

You can't be self-employed. It just doesn't wash with HMRC- your employers set the hours, days and place you work and you can't just arrange someone to cover you and tell them to like it or lump it. A self employed person can't just agree sick/holiday pay. Those are benefits for employees and pretty key indicators of it being an employment relationship rather than a service provider.

As for splitting the tax code, yes you can do this. The safest thing to do is to talk in gross terms with toe potential employer. There will be a small amount of employers NI to pay I expect but talking in gross terms means they know the £8/8.50 is the total they're paying and then tax and NI is deducted from that. It's not very complex to administer once HMRC have split the tax code for you.

I'm sure they'd love you to be self employed

Give them details of payroll companies. Cost of payroll company varies, £135 a year.
Yes it adds cost, employers NI. Use MrAnchovy's calculator to show example cost.

If you were really SE you would be charging far more than 8.50 an hour! As it is, they have the legal duty to register as employer.