advice on housekeeper/mother's help/tax

[clbj]

Hello, I would really appreciate any advice. We are looking for someone to come and help me weekday afternoons, mainly with tidying/keeping the house in order but also with my three children (i.e. watching toddler while I do the school run, helping at bath time) - housekeeper/mother's help seems to be the most accurate description.
I have met with several candidates and most of them have one or multiple other jobs in the mornings, and tell me they are registered as self employed. The candidate I like most does not want to sign a contract or be paid anyway but cash in hand, which I am not happy with. I really want to do this properly and make sure tax is paid etc, but am struggling to work out how to do this with a part time housekeeper who says they are self employed. What are my responsibilities in this situation? Is there some sort of proof they can give me that they are registered as self-employed? What sort of contract would be sensible? I can't work out how I make sure this situation is all legit. Any advice most welcome.

You don't have to, they have a responsibility. If they're properly self employed it's all their responsibility. If I'm wrong someone else will correct me.

I'm self employed and all taxes etc are my responsibility. I pay class 2 national insurance contributions too.

You need to make sure they are eligible to be self-employed for the role that you are offering. It is possible to be both employed and self-employed at the same time so don't worry about what they do the rest of the time, only the job you are offering is relevant. You can contact ACAS to check employment status and here is the .gov site.

If she is self-employed then you can pay cash and it will be her responsibility to pay her taxes.

If she is an employee then you must make sure her taxes are paid and it will be you who is fined if they are not.

Thank you, this is all really helpful. Is there anyway I can ask her to prove her self-employed status, or if she has stated that she is and the job she is doing for us allows her to be self employed, is it acceptable for me to take her at her word?

Thanks again for the advice.

It is perfectly possible (and very likely) that she will be an employee. If she is running a business and pops into you for an hour or two before going off down the street to do the same thing for an hour and then driving over to another property to do the same thing for the afternoon then she is more likely to be running a business and self employed. She should still submit an invoice to you.

If she is an employee however (working for you part time and then working e.g. as a TA or in a coffee shop in the mornings) then you will be responsible for ensuring that she is paid properly and via PAYE. If you don't administer PAYE properly then the revenue can come after you for the income tax and NI that they haven't received. It would then be difficult for you to recoup this from her. You could effectively end up paying all her tax and NI for her which would be an expensive mistake.

You don't need to worry about whether she is paying tax or self-employed for other jobs or whatever.

Your only concern is the job that she is doing for you. If she can be self-employed then you pay her and what she does beyond that is up to her (you can report her if you think she isn't paying tax). If she can't be self-employed you pay her tax.

The only thing you need to get right is whether she can be considered self-employed or not.

Do you worry when you pay a window cleaner or a plumber or a builder or an electrician or a gardener whether they're paying their taxes or not? It's none of your concern because they are self-employed. It's the same with a self-employed housekeeper.

I'm employed and self-employed. If job has regular hours that the client/employer dictates then it is likely that the provider should be employed. Your local tax office will be able to tell you whether they should be employed or not in this case. If they should be employed them don't take them on self employed a it'll be you liable for tax regardless of whether they have paid it should the tax office find out.