Advice on having a CM assistant

[Cullercoats88]

Hello I am pregnant so my partner and I have made plans for him to be my assistant. We have already begun the registering process with ofsted.
I was wandering how to pay him- should he registered as SE with HMRC or should I be his employer? To me it seems simpler for me to employ him, that way we only have to do one set of accounts, one Self Assesment and so on...does anyone have any experience of having an assistant how do you work it?
TIA X

my DH is my assistant.
we registered with HMRC as a partnership.
Basically at the end of the tax year you take all the expenses off then split the profit in any proportion you like ( in our case 50 / 50).
You do both have to do a separate SE but it really doesn't take long ( an hour or so once a year)
otherwise officially you would have to show you pay him NMw and national insurance / sick pay etc.
As a partnership you are both SE.

He could always volunteer

I think maybe registering him as your employee may be simpler, I am currently working as an assistant and its a lot easier for me being an employee.
As an employer you would have to pay his national insurance, which I believe is 13.8% on anything he earns over £153 a week. You would also need to factor in holiday pay as you have to pay this. Holidays will be pro rata depending on the number of days he works.
You would also need to consider additional insurance premiums (liability insurance, membership/registration costs, costs of looking after the children, heating, lighting etc)
If he was to register as self employed then he would need to make sure he was adequately qualified/registered/insured to do this.

Sorry if this makes no sense but I've wrote down as much as I know so hopefully this helps a little.

If he was to register as self employed then he would need to make sure he was adequately qualified/registered/insured to do this
HMRC aren't interested in how qualified he would be.
For OFSTED purposes it would be the same whether he was SE or an employee; he would still need to be a registered assistant.

He has obviously got CRB (DBS) as a part of ofsted registration, but he is also booked on first aid and safeguarding courses.

What do you mean HSMMaCM? We have a joint account, which would always have money in, but do you mean not officially pay him? He isn't going to be unemployed though so I don't want to do anything wrong.

Registering as a partnership is interesting, I didn't know that was a possibility. So in effect it's two self employed people working together?

Just that DH was going to be my assistant (only for a couple of months) and rather than employing him or him registering as self employed, he just volunteered. Not suggesting anything dodgy, just an alternative while you sort everything out. Probably more tax efficient for him to be paid anyway.

We ended up both being self employed for a few years when he got full registration as a CM and now we have a limited company.

Ahh sorry should have said, he has given up work to do this full time, not just whilst I'm pregnant/with newborn.

So would you suggest him being self employed?

It's confusing because if you speak to PACEY or your Childminder co-ordinator (as I have this morning) they both say I should be employer. From what other childminders have said though, this isn't going to be the most straight forward option, as I had first thought.

I was told partnership was deffo the easiest. Yes you are both self employed. It's a form you fill out and send to HMRC then you get acknowledgement about 2 weeks later. dead easy .
With the greatest respect to them, PACEY and your local CMC won't be the best to decide easiest way to set up the business. HMRC recommended partnership

www.gov.uk/set-up-business-partnership/setting-up

Thanks adsy, just on hold to them as we speak!

How exciting. let us know how you go on.

If you employ him, he will be entitled to nmw, paid leave, sick pay, all of which will expenses for you. I believe you will also have to contribute to his pension. So I would have thought you would be better off employing hi, especially if it is long term.

Is he registering as your assistant or as a childminder so you can work together and therefore take on more children? My mum was a cm when I lived at home, my brother and I were her volunteer assistants. She used to cook for us as our pay...

He is registering as my assistant. We can take on more children with his as my assistant though, he doesn't need to be a registered childminder, as I already am. He just needs to be approved by ofsted, have a CRB and he will have first aid and child protection.
After speaking to HMRC yest they recommend I employ him as it suits our situation better, thanks for all your input!!

The other big advantage of him being an assistant rather than CM is only you will be inspected, not both of you!

And I'm the boss! Haha