au pair pay of £180 a week - tax question

[pjsgalore]

Hello! I'm interviewing two au pairs at the moment, I pay £100 a week - but the one au pair has asked if she could do the weekly clean on top of that (I told her my cleaner is leaving and I'm looking for a new one - and she's done cleaning work before) which is £80. So we would pay her £180 a week.

I'm confused about what status she gets then. With the cleaning she'll be doing 26 hours a week. So she's got an au pair's hours, and obviously will also be eating with us and be treated like a member of the family. But it's kind of doing a nanny/housekeeper part-time job.

If I pay her £180 a week, I then have to pay tax on her and register as an employer don't I? Do I then also have to navigate pensions etc? I'm USELESS at stuff like that. So can anyone shed any light? Or perhaps there's a good agency that could do that for me?

She seems lovely - and it would be great having one person doing it all! But just need to make sure i"m doing it right! And consider both options before I make a decision.

Yes you register as an employer Aka more expensive for you.

How old is she as I'm sure that goes below min wage for most ?

Look at the Worksmart tax & NI calculator. No income tax due on that level of pay.

Sorry. Also look at the Pension Regulator website re contributions

But NI is payabale.

£80 sounds like a massive amount of money for cleaning. I assume that's what you paid your old cleaner who had the relevant insurance and things?

Sounds like too much of a faff

Thanks ladies! Does sound like a bit of a faff....

Just I looked at the minimum wage and offset against accommodation it's £7 - so I guess I'd pay her upwards from that. So 180 is almost exactly right funnily enough!

Oh great thank you Fading - will check it out this evening!

Yes paid our cleaner £10 an hour - and she did 8 hours a week - 5 on Monday 3 on Friday.

Hmmm - yes does sound like a faff though having to do the extra admin. Might have to tell her no to the cleaning and just find a new cleaner.

Thanks ladies

Also makes it a bit difficult if her cleaning isn’t up to scratch and she’s your live in au pair...

This is HMRC Guide

www.gov.uk/au-pairs-employment-law/au-pairs

If she's an au pair (some do clean) it looks like she's not an employee from what I see here and no income tax payable on that amount but NI if she's class one maybe payable from £157. Maybe 5 hours cleaning not 8 but check with HMRC.

That's really useful - thank you! Thinking probably easiest just to stick with an au pair and a cleaner...

Could you pay her slightly less for the cleaning on the basis she lives in, no travel time or costs etc and could do 2 hours per day rather than 5 + 3 so more relaxing?

You will have to register for PAYE and Auto Enrolment for pensions. The cost is not enormous and while it is a 'faff' as someone put it, it is the law and if you get it wrong you open up a whole raft of other attention from HMRC if you are also self-employed or run a property business. The first person to complain for non-payment of national insurance or pensions is the nanny/au pair. There are a number of payroll bureaux that specialise in au pair contracts and payroll and could do this for you. Generally they will be cheaper than a local accountant firm and because they have experience of what to do will be better VFM. If you google them choose one with lots of recommendations.

You only have to enroll for PAYE. Au pairs are not classed as employees so new pension rules don't apply to them.

If you really like the first au pair, mention that you're happy for her to get cleaning jobs/bar job elsewhere. As long as she is paid on a second job tax code (usually BR) it won't affect you. I ask for a pay slip to check their tax code though after they've started and make it clear that their second job must fit around us.