Nanny employment, two employers

[minnan]

I have posted a similar thread in the nanny section already but wondered if someone here might be able to help me as well..

I am starting work as a nanny, and I will be working for 2 families. They kind of expect me to find out and sort out the paperwork. Nightmare.
Job 1 will be 8 hrs weekly term time and more during school hols. Job 2 is 8-10 hours weekly all year. As I start Job 1 first, it will be my main job and use up my allowances, whatever that means..? When I start Job 2 they will have to pay tax at 20% straight away? I will still earn next to nothing all year but will be taxed at 20%, I assume I would get a tax return. And who pays my NI, and do they always pay that or only after I earn over £146 weekly (?? and is it £146 from one job or altogether?) Job 1 will pay me less than £107 per week, so apparently the employer does not need to register/pay tax/operate paye? But then during easter break I would work more and earn about £200 per week from Job 1, and she would then need to register? AND pay tax? What about when it goes back to less than £107 after the hols? I have agreed a gross wage to make it easier for them to employ me. But I have learned that it is not easy..also, what does splitting a tax code mean, and when would that be useful? Who do you think should pay my taxes and why? Apparently you can split your allowance between the two jobs as well, but how and why would you do that?
Is it actually complicated to operate PAYE or the real time thing that is coming on in April..?

I have called HMRC but they want the employers to call separately, and do not really give advice on how to get thing going and what would be the smartest thing to do. I know this should be my employers' problem, but they are just so sticky about this all.

Many thanks x

Well, it is totally your employers responsibility to sort this out, not yours.

They both need to register as employers with HMRC, and they should be able to give them the info they need - they also have free software that can be downloaded to calculate the tax & NI deductions, and, if you are their only employees, then they will only have to send the info in to HMRC quarterly, along with the payments for PAYE and NIC, so not a huge amount of admin.

Assuming that you don't have any other employment, you will get a personal allowance which will give you 'free tax' of just over £9k (this changes every April) - you will pay tax at 20% on earnings above this amount, but nothing below. NIC is slightly difference, so there will be an employees deduction from your wages (the LEL is £146, so earnings above this will be subject to deductions of 12%) and employers' payment of 13.8% above £144/week.

Do you have a P45 from your last employer? If so, give this to employer 1. You will then need to complete a P46 for employer 2 (ticking the box to say that this isn't your only job). These will then be submitted to HMRC and they will sort out your tax code etc so that you aren't being taxed twice.

At the end of each tax year, you will be sent a P60 from each employer which iwll confirm the total tax & NIC that you have paid across in the tax year.

I believe there are agents who specialise in the payroll for nanny's though, so your employers will have less admin, however they are likely to have to pay a fee to the agency.