Tax/NI, contract - self employed babysitter?

[drspouse]

We have just arranged for our usual babysitter, that our DS loves, to pick him up once a week from school, bring him home, give him tea etc when he starts in September.

We only employ her irregularly at the moment and she has other jobs - she has another school run job (mornings) and some cleaning jobs as well. I doubt her hours add up to full time in any week, given she doesn't work many hours on the other school run job, and she doesn't do cleaning all day every day. As it's irregular we currently pay her cash but I think we will ask about monthly cheque/bank transfer for the school run job.

Do we need to do anything about her tax and NI, given that she has other job(s)? Or is that all up to her?

I've looked up the criteria for self-employment and she meets some of them (she has various clients, she could in an emergency get someone else to pick him up - though if she let us know she had to do that we'd probably just do it ourselves; but she can't decide to pick him up at a different time. If she decided to take him for a walk/to the park instead of straight home that would be fine and we wouldn't ask her to notify us in advance, her decision, but she has to start/finish her work at school/our house).

And if you have this kind of arrangement, do you have a contract?

Childminders are paid for your child's holidays and sickness
Depends on the CM contract. Some allow unpaid holidays.

But that kind of argues towards the CM being an employee, to be honest. Which they aren't. If the CM were an employee and were on a fixed hours contract but one day there was no work for them despite them being available in their regular place of work, they'd be paid for those hours (like the CM is when your child is sick). Like a nursery worker who does 1:1 but the child they care for is sick.

A self-employed CM (or plumber or music teacher) who goes to the place they are contracted to work that day and can't do the work that day due to the child being sick/the house they were supposed to be plumbing being not yet built/the piano in the rehearsal room having been stolen, could not do their job that day so wouldn't get paid.

It's up to them to have something in their contract that says they will get paid/get paid a retainer or similar for days they can't work due to circumstances beyond their control.

Our CM has something in her contract (standard printed one from a CM organisation) that says we pay if our child is sick. She had a home emergency (as in, her house was unsuitable for caring for children and also in fact for living in) and was a bit cross with us that we didn't think we should pay her as it was beyond her control.
This is rather beside the point, but she definitely has a term in the contract about our child being sick, but I wouldn't expect her to extend it to, say, her child being infectious meaning our child can't go there. She's definitely self-employed, but does make provision for us not sending our DC when she had arranged her day to care for them.

my point was though, that if you pay your baby sitter in advance for a set number of hours, then I think it leads to employment not self employment as you are contracting her to do something in advance. If she bills you in arrears for random hours worked, then it looks better for self employment.

Hmm, my clients pay me ahead for some services. So they might fur a package for example. It doesn't mean that their employee though.

In the case on the OP it's even less clear because the babysitter is doing a lot of other things too, with other people rather than working fur only person doing one thing iyswim.

Yes I've paid e.g. s-e tradespeople a deposit including some hours (not just for materials) and then the balance on completion.

Most employees don't get paid in advance - they get paid monthly or weekly in arrears. We do pay our s-e CM in advance. If something doesn't work out or we need to add extra hours we settle up in arrears but the main payment is in advance.

(Oh and my Pilates teacher, who runs regular classes at regular times and in regular locations, and who can cancel or move classes but only within reason, offers a 6 for 7 payment in advance package - so you pay for 6 classes but get 7 - but you must pay in advance).

Those are completely different things though, as a builder quotes for a job, does it, then moves on to the next customer. A Pilates teacher runs a series of classes for several people at a time. There is no way that it could look like you were employing that person.

Technically as far as HMRC are concerned, if you work set hours in a set place and the "employer" calls the shots, then you are an employee. In order to prove self employment, you need to prove certain things.

As long as she bills you for random hours each month (ie not 20 every single month) and you get an invoice each time, and she also works for other people, then you should be ok.

Hi,

I am a private tutor and I (mostly) work in my clients' homes at a set day and time. I also choose what to do with them (unlikely to take them out though :) I am self-employed and never had any problem with my tax assessment. I invoice people at the end of each month, but this is my choice, it all depends on your contract. I would not let a tutee down by changing their days without prior agreement and I try to be mindful when going on holiday. I had to cancel due to sickness but that can happen in employment to.

She can definitely be self-employed, the rest is all down to communication. You already have a good working relationship with her so as long as she invoices you I would just trust that she will not let you down if she was reliable before. I suppose she wants her business thrive and be recommended.