becoming a self emplyed nanny

[nanniemum]

HELLO
Ihave the opportunity to become a nanny Im experienced and have a 4 year old of my own.
The family that want me to work for them want me to do my own tax and NI, how do i go about this?
What is the required wage per hour to look after one child when doing your own tax and NI.

Umm - you can't be a self employed Nanny for one family - at least not legally

thanks how many families do you need to be employed for?
What do the family need to do to employ me?

Agreed you can't be a Self employed nanny for only one family. They should be paying you a gross wage and making tax and NI deductions on your behalf. As you would presumably be living out it would be at least national minimum wage.

The family are trying to put one over on you. As a self employed person you would have no right to holiday pay, sick pay, redundancy or maternity. When you are employed as a nanny should be then you have all those rights and more.

They might not be 'trying to put one over' on you (I worked with a Swiss guy who genuinely didn't know that he couldn't leave his nanny to deal with her own tax), but they are wrong. You need to be an employee and they need to pay you a net wage after NI and income tax deductions.

A self employed person has 'customers' or 'clients'. So, for example, a childminder is self employed. They have a business which keeps on running regardless of exactly which children they are looking after. As a nanny, you wouldn't be self employed, even if you worked for a couple of families.

Actually you can be an SE nanny if you're in continuous temporary employment as is the way with maternity nurses who take nanny jobs to make up.

Okay they may be genuinely ignorant but a lot of families know they should be employing you but try not to. You just need a contract with them which says you're their employee and they need to either administer the payroll themselves or get someone like nannytax to do it.

Have you cross posted this to childminders, nannies and au pairs? Lots of nanny employers there.

Frakkin - you are completely right. Sorry, I didn't mention that because it clearly wasn't the situation here, but you're right it might mislead people. Maternity nursing (or similar short contracts) is obviously different.

hi,i resanatly got offstead reg so i can become a nannie but the person i was going to start the job with has just had a baby and is putting her bussness on hold for a while. i am currently 36 weeks perg with my first child but am looking to get to work asap. am currently working as a lv 2 playworkier at an after school and holiday club but the hours are just not enough for me. so i am looking to go self employed but i really dont know where to begin or who to turn to. if any 1 could help me to start out or give me a direction of where to start it would really help. thank you for taking the time to read this. v morgan x

Vix you need to look carefully at any maternity allowances you might already be entitled to and how becoming SE and working would affect your maternity pay.

The best place to start is with HMRC, but you will need to take each job on its own merits - it's impossible to say you are just self-employed and that every job fits the criteria. Your employment status for each job is determined by the job itself. As was mentioned above the majority of 'SE nannies' are not actually nannies but maternity nurses by profession who occasionally take temp contracts. Realistically self-employment is not the best option for nannies for many reasons, not least because it can take a long time to become established and jobs are initially few and far between. The fines for employers who wrongly use a self-employed nanny are pretty hefty and they would become liable for back payment of your tax and NI even if you had already paid it.

I feel you might be better looking for another permanent nanny job once you've had your own child. Good luck!