Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What's a specialty nanny? ST? Consultant?
Probably nannies who fall under the category of "companion sitters." "Companion sitters are individuals who furnish personal attendance, companionship, or household care services to children or to individuals who are elderly or disabled....Companion sitters who aren't employees of a companion sitting placement service are generally treated as self-employed for all federal tax purposes." IRS Pub. 15A
Most nannies are employees, because the rule is that "an individual is an independent contractor if you, the person for whom the services are performed, have the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result." Another way to put it is "anyone who performs services for you is generally your employee if you have the right to control what will be done and how it will be done. This is so even when you give the employee freedom of action. What matters is that you have the right to control the details of how the services are performed."
A parent who hires a nanny has the right to control what that nanny does and how s/he does it--what to feed a child, what activities the child engages in, what equipment the nanny should use, etc. So the nanny is an employee.