Paying for Childcare as Federal Employee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay our cleaners with a check. I have no idea whether they report the income but I don't see it as my problem any more so than when I hire people for repairs or other work on the house.

This is different than a full time employee.

Many babysitters are part time and have several different families they help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Au pair

This. Go through an agency.

[Anonymous]

Find an actual full time daycare.

[Anonymous]

Nannies don’t want to do housekeeping. With the nanny shortage, we can have one baby for $30-35/hr. Why would I take on multiple kids or housekeeping?

[Anonymous]

Are you offering full time hours? If not you need to up the pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay our cleaners with a check. I have no idea whether they report the income but I don't see it as my problem any more so than when I hire people for repairs or other work on the house.

This is different than a full time employee.

Many babysitters are part time and have several different families they help.

No sorry. Please look up the law.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you've tried the things that worked for me - I went through an agency or care.com and in both cases found people willing to be paid on a W2. It was a PITA even with the payroll agency but we wanted to be completely above board.

Can you put your kids in an aftercare program instead of with a nanny? And then use a cleaning service like Merry Maids?

[Anonymous]

It's really hard outside DC area. We have a babysitting service and a cleaning service, so we pay companies and not individuals.

[Anonymous]

Will you pay more than $2500 to an individual? My understanding is that’s the threshold where you have to pay taxes. For example, I have an occasional date night high school babysitter and we don’t pay taxes for her. She’s also picked the kids up / dropped kids off before. On average she probably gets $100 a month (cash at $20 an hour)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay our cleaners with a check. I have no idea whether they report the income but I don't see it as my problem any more so than when I hire people for repairs or other work on the house.

This is different than a full time employee.

Many babysitters are part time and have several different families they help.

No sorry. Please look up the law.

Can’t work for several different families?

[Anonymous]

What kind of hours are you looking for? I think it’s strange that you can’t find anybody on the books for a full-time job. If you were looking for afterschool help then everybody hasn’t problem with that one because very few people can afford to only work, or only want to work for a few hours a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We pay our cleaners with a check. I have no idea whether they report the income but I don't see it as my problem any more so than when I hire people for repairs or other work on the house.

Wrong. A house cleaner needs to be on the books if they earn $2,400 or more in any given year.

We file social security, Medicare and unemployment taxes for our cleaner, plus maintain a worker’s comp policy.

[Anonymous]

We are in your situation. We must be really careful with things like nanny/cleaners, etc. We have always used an au pair instead of a nanny. It takes away all risk since the program is structured from the outside, the agency takes care of all visa issues, and the minimal taxes are paid directly by the au pair.

We have never found a nanny who would work completely above board and would be flexible enough for our schedules. In DC, many people with clearances use au pairs instead of nannies for these reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay our cleaners with a check. I have no idea whether they report the income but I don't see it as my problem any more so than when I hire people for repairs or other work on the house.

Wrong. A house cleaner needs to be on the books if they earn $2,400 or more in any given year.

We file social security, Medicare and unemployment taxes for our cleaner, plus maintain a worker’s comp policy.

You are both correct but talking past each other. We only hire cleaners who work for a service. If you hire a sole employee, you have to pay taxes, workers comp, etc. If you hire a service and they send a cleaner, you don’t have to do these things. The service is the employer not you. I would love to have a housekeeper and I can afford one, but I can’t risk even the appearance of not following the rules, so it’s just easier to never have an employee and just pay a premium to get someone through a service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay our cleaners with a check. I have no idea whether they report the income but I don't see it as my problem any more so than when I hire people for repairs or other work on the house.

Wrong. A house cleaner needs to be on the books if they earn $2,400 or more in any given year.

We file social security, Medicare and unemployment taxes for our cleaner, plus maintain a worker’s comp policy.

I think we are just under that at $180 once per month. Not sure I see the distinction though between a house cleaner or a repair person I hire for a big job (over 2400) and no one puts a repair person or company on payroll. The housekeepers don't seem like they would pass the employee test because they don't take direction from us (they dont even talk to us) and they supply their own tools.