Employing a nanny... do I need a payroll company

[Muststopeating]

Help please.

I have just found a nanny (which is a massive relief) and need to sort out the details.

Do I need to hire a payroll company or can I do this myself? I'm not an accountant, but do my husbands tax return, spent a huge part of my career in finance, so calculations etc don't phase me.

Any cost saving at this point is a huge blessing.

Also, pension. I naively thought I'd just use Peoples Pension since its who my work use. £500 upfront cost to register!!!

Are there cheaper pension companies out there more targetted at single employers or very small businesses?

If you are employing one person and it's their only job it can be extremely easy (if you are paying under the PAYE threshold you literally just create your own payslips) but if they are over the PAYE threshold it's a bit more complicated (but not sure how much!)

It’s not very complicated and there are calculators on the gov.uk website if you’re not sure how to calculate it. We use Nest for pension contributions, and they seem fine. I can’t remember what the set up cost was but I think more like £80.

You can do things yourself using PAYE Basic Tools from HMRC - if they still provide that, or you can use software like BrightPay.

You can find example contracts online, NannyJob.co.uk had a reasonable one.

Nest Pensions can be used by small employers.

I'd use payefornannies, they're not expensive (cheaper than nannytax) and you can use their employment lawyers too. worth it for your time!