OK, am thinking of about a nanny-share: what do I need to know?

[LittleSilver]

I am thinking about asking someone to nanny for us, and potentially approaching another family (who already use her to babysit) to share her; ie, we employ her between us for "x" amount of hours, they pay y and we pay z, depending on how we split the hours. I am hoping someone might be able to enlighten me on:

• How on earth do you sort out tax/NI?
• If they are OFSTED registered can you claim tax credits?
• What else am I missing that I need to know?

It all sound incredibly complicated; am I right?

Thanks!

Did a nanny share for 3 years. Used Nannytax (might now be called Enable?) so never had to worry re tax and NI and payslips - they are used to nannyshares. BUT I would be careful about agreeing with other family how you are handling things. We agreed a fair way between us of paying her under which I paid her less in her hand but paid more tax. Only discovered when she left that she had thought all along the other family paid her more per hour - no wonder they always got first dibs on babysitting! Also flexibility - does the other family have any back-up, or are you going to always have to do 3-way negotiations on things like holiday dates? We ended up having holidays at times we didn't particularly want because if we'd holidayed at a different time to the other family the nanny would never have had a time she could go away.

You do need good communication with the other family. We did a nanny share for a year, and used Nannytax as well, so that the total cost to each of us was fair.

Will nanny be looking after children from two families at the same time? You'll need two sets of baby equipment/highchairs/whatever.

Our DSs were the same age and very young at the time. They formed a really really strong friendship which lasted for years afterwards. Both families had no back-up in London so we used each other when nanny was sick or for babysitting, which was another plus. I would recommend it.