Best way to pay a part time nanny?

[Train]

Me and the wife are hiring a part time nanny to help out with the kids when she goes back to work next month.

I've looked online and it seems there are a hundred different ways to pay an in home worker. Some even go as far as calculating tax withholdigns, eff that noise.

Basicaly I have two goals:
1. Keep it simple & easy
2. Be able to claim it as a child care deduction.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

[vi edit]

I'm pretty sure if you want to be able to claim it as a deduction you have to consider her a household employee and assume the tax responsibilities of that arrangement.

I think about the only way around it is to work through a nanny agency where you are paying overhead for the agency to clear those for you.

 

[Fritzo]

Hire a hot foreign exchange student and pay her with 3-ways with your wife.



I think I've come to the point where I'm watching too much Porntube.

 

[Bulk Beef]

Pics of nanny?

 

[manimal]

cash works. We pay taxes and SS for ours though since she has been with us for two years now. We plan on keeping her till the triplets are in first grade. Call her a house manager and not a nanny. Imply off the bat that she is responsible for cleaning and random crap.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

pay her with inches.

 

[Train]

I'm pretty sure if you want to be able to claim it as a deduction you have to consider her a household employee and assume the tax responsibilities of that arrangement.

I think about the only way around it is to work through a nanny agency where you are paying overhead for the agency to clear those for you.

pretty sure? Even for only part time?

The accountant at my wife's job just told us we can get away with just paying her via 1099, and just to save all the checks in case of an audit. That sounds like what we are going to do.

 

[Jeraden]

We have a full time nanny. Yeah, if you want to do the child care deduction, you have to pay her "officially", meaning you need to withhold taxes, as well as paying employer taxes for her on top of that. So keep that in mind when you calculate how much you can afford. You do not have to withhold taxes if you pay her less than a certain dollar amount - I forget what it is now, but it's a few thousand I think.

Our first nanny we were doing the taxes on, but we ended up not liking her and letting her go. Since it was less than the dollar amount, we refunded her what we had withheld so far with her last check.

(as a funny sidenote, she ended up trying to file an unemployment claim against us. Fortunately she wasn't hired long enough to qualify for it).

 

[Oyeve]

pay her with inches.

+1

 

[Train]

Pics of nanny?

shes like a 3, no kidding. We interviewed another one that was pretty hot, but she came off like a complete air head. The one we hired has all kinds of experience working at day cars, and is in school to be a elementary teacher. She's also built like a line backer, I would bet on her in a fight vs. the avg adult male. Srsly if anyone tries to invade my home while she is there they are gonna get their ass kicked.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Crazy that people let a stranger into their household AND pay them to watch their kids

Scary

 

[highland145]

shes like a 3, no kidding. We interviewed another one that was pretty hot, but she came off like a complete air head. The one we hired has all kinds of experience working at day cars, and is in school to be a elementary teacher. She's also built like a line backer, I would bet on her in a fight vs. the avg adult male. Srsly if anyone tries to invade my home while she is there they are gonna get their ass kicked.

You're doing it wrong.

 

[vi edit]

pretty sure? Even for only part time?

The accountant at my wife's job just told us we can get away with just paying her via 1099, and just to save all the checks in case of an audit. That sounds like what we are going to do.

I think that only applies if you pay her under a certain amount for the year ($1700 or $1800).

Do the math on the savings though. If you can pay her a 1/3 less with straight cash homey...then the tax savings are negated.

 

[vshah]

Hire a hot foreign exchange student and pay her with 3-ways with your wife.



I think I've come to the point where I'm watching too much Porntube.

nope. i work there. according to my logs, you've only used 72 gigs in July. We start referring to mental health providers at 150 gigs, so you have a ways to go.

 

[Train]

Crazy that people let a stranger into their household AND pay them to watch their kids

Scary

Compared to daycare, a well qualified nanny is 100x better, not to mention the same price or less.

 

[vi edit]

Compared to daycare, a well qualified nanny is 100x better, not to mention the same price or less.

The problem with nanny's is that they are just one person. Shit happens. They get sick, their kids get sick. They get sick of taking care of your kids. Ect. And they bail. At the worst time possible.

I have several friends that have done the nanny thing and most of them who are full time employed people ended up going back to daycare because their nanny either got pregnant, moved out of the area, or just got tired of doing the work and left them high and dry.

Not saying every case is that way, but in my area getting a non-flaky nanny has been tough.

 

[Train]

The problem with nanny's is that they are just one person. Shit happens. They get sick, their kids get sick. They get sick of taking care of your kids. Ect. And they bail. At the worst time possible.

I have several friends that have done the nanny thing and most of them who are full time employed people ended up going back to daycare because their nanny either got pregnant, moved out of the area, or just got tired of doing the work and left them high and dry.

Not saying every case is that way, but in my area getting a non-flaky nanny has been tough.

Those are the least of my worries. I have tons of friends who have pulled their kids out of daycare for various reasons, and nne have had any complaint about nannys. Weighing all the options, nanny still 100x better. We still have two grandmothers that can take the kids on short notice, they just can't do it everyday.

 

[olds]

pay her with inches.

Black inches?

 

[Jeraden]

We had mixed luck. First nanny just stopped showing up, kind of screwing us over. 2nd nanny wasn't very good at all, and had a bad attitude on top of it. 3rd nanny has been a winner so far, going on a year now. We just pay her with cash.

We do have a backup person - that does in-home daycare where we drop our son off. That is almost a necessity as like vi said, your nanny will sometimes need the day off, or be sick, or go on vacation, etc. So either you have to take the day off to stay home, or you need somewhere else you can rely on with little notice.

Also, I'm not sure where you'd find a nanny that would come to your house for less than a daycare would cost. There are lots of stay-at-home-moms that offer daycare in their home for pretty cheap. But not many that come to your home for cheap. Daycare generally goes for $800/month around here - nobody is going to work full time for that amount.

 

[corwin]

Those are the least of my worries. I have tons of friends who have pulled their kids out of daycare for various reasons. Weighing all the options, nanny still 100x better. We still have two grandmothers that can take the kids on short notice, they just can't do it everyday.

Paying under the table is 100x better than the tax deduction, for both of you...

 

[highland145]

Black inches?

Makes a difference whether they are Monday or Friday inches.

 

[Icepick]

I'm pretty sure if you want to be able to claim it as a deduction you have to consider her a household employee and assume the tax responsibilities of that arrangement.

I think about the only way around it is to work through a nanny agency where you are paying overhead for the agency to clear those for you.

This is what I have done in the past. Hire her through a nanny agency then you will be provided with receipts for all payments and will not have any difficulty claiming the expense on your tax returns. The nanny agency will handle screening/background checks, benefits, witholding, etc... That is by far the path of least resistance for you.

 

[corwin]

Also, I'm not sure where you'd find a nanny that would come to your house for less than a daycare would cost. There are lots of stay-at-home-moms that offer daycare in their home for pretty cheap. But not many that come to your home for cheap. Daycare generally goes for $800/month around here - nobody is going to work full time for that amount.

Is that per kid? Damn, thought mine was bad but it's just over $1k a month for two...if we pop out one more kid it will be cheaper to get a nanny, most of them will do up to three kids for the same price and I know I can get one for under $1500 month.

And if you want a source that provides people after background checks etc look at http://www.care.com

 

[Jeraden]

Oh, that was just for 1 kid, I missed the "kids" part of the original post. So in that case, maybe not.

 

[vi edit]

Is that per kid? Damn, thought mine was bad but it's just over $1k a month for two...if we pop out one more kid it will be cheaper to get a nanny, most of them will do up to three kids for the same price and I know I can get one for under $1500 month.

And if you want a source that provides people after background checks etc look at http://www.care.com

Going rates in my area are 1100-$1300 a month for a single infant for a place that isn't a total shit hole. Luckily I have a place near my wife's office that has an employer subsidy of about $400 a month that we can take advantage of. But even with that I'm paying almost $1500 a month for a 4 year old and an infant. Unsubidized or at another daycare of similar quality at it would be closer to $2100 a month.

We *HIGHLY* considered and were temped by a nanny. But with the horror story friends of ours had, we just didn't want to dealt with the hastle. Again, YMMV and different areas may have a much better nanny pool to chose from. It's just not a very common thing where I'm at.