NMW National Minimum Wage 2020/21

From April the NMW (National Minimum Wage) rates are changing for the 20/21 tax year.

As an employer you must comply with the national minimum wage, if you do not you could end up in an Employment Tribunal or be reported to HMRC and face a fine of up to £20,000.

The new hourly rates for the tax year 2020/21 are:

Apprentice – £4.15
16 to 17 year old – £4.55
18 to 20 year old – £6.45
21-24 year old – £8.20
25+ – £8.72

If nanny lives in the family home and not separate accommodation provided by the employer, then the national minimum wage does not apply.

For live in nannies, there is a daily accommodation offset rate of £8.20 per day, £57.40 a week. These rates are set every April, so it is important to keep up to date with the new legislation. These rates are from April 2020.

For accommodation provided to nanny other than the family home, this will need to be declared as a Benefit In Kind.

How to Handle Their First Haircut – Tips for Parents

Taking your child to the hairdresser for the very first time might seem like a daunting experience, but with these top tips, it’ll be a smooth, enjoyable experience for both you and your child.

The first thing to remember is that there’s no set age as to when your child will need their first hair cut and that you won’t be about to lose their precious baby curls!

You only really need to cut your child’s hair if it’s starting to creep towards their eyes, if it’s irritating them in any way or if the fly-away sections of hair at the sides of their face start to look out of control.

If your child is ready for their first trim, remember these top tips:

Continue reading “How to Handle Their First Haircut – Tips for Parents”

Nanny and Additional Employment

When nanny gets an additional job whilst still in your employ, it is her responsibility to make sure her tax codes in each employment are correct.

As an employer, you could always notify her of her tax situation in your employment and what should happen in her 2^nd job. This way you have mitigated any risk of an under payment for nanny and potentially your costs increasing if you have agreed a net wage.

If you are nanny’s main job and have the tax code 1250L for her, if she gets another job, Basic Rate tax (BR) must be applied in her other job. This can be indicated by nanny completing a starter checklist and ticking statement C –

https://public-online.hmrc.gov.uk/lc/content/xfaforms/profiles/forms.html?contentRoot=repository:///Applications/PersonalTax_iForms/1.0/SC&template=SC.xdp

Bank Holidays

Bank Holidays 2020 2020 is upon us and it is always handy to have a list of the bank holidays for the year and what day of the week they fall on. These are the dates of the bank holidays in 2020 for England.
1 January	Wednesday	New Year’s Day
10 April	Friday	Good Friday
13 April	Monday	Easter Monday
8 May	Friday	Early May Bank Holiday
25 May	Monday	Spring bank holiday
31 August	Monday	Summer bank holiday
25 December	Friday	Christmas Day
28 December	Monday	Boxing Day

If a bank holiday is on a weekend, a ‘substitute’ weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday.

It is worth noting that if nanny does not work 5 days a week that she is still entitled to bank holidays on a pro rata basis, for example if nanny only works 3 days per week then she is still entitled to 3/5ths of the 8 bank holidays whether her working day falls on a bank holiday or not.

Tax Year End Adjustments

As the end of the tax year approaches, are nanny’s payslips correct?

It is important to make sure that what is being submitted to HMRC is correct, and the P60 we will shortly produce is right.

Has nanny had a pay change that is not reflected on the payslip?

Have you given nanny a bonus recently?

Has nanny recently changed address or changed her name?

Always check nanny’s payslips as her tax code may have changed causing her net pay to differ

How to Keep your Nanny Happy

A good nanny is like gold dust. Once you’ve found a nanny you love – and your children love – you will want to do all you can to keep her. Keeping your nanny happy is important, and as her employer it falls on your shoulders to make sure she is treated fairly.

Following are some important points to remember as an employer of a nanny.

Trust your nanny

By employing her, allowing her to be with your children unsupervised and maybe even by having her live in your home, you have expressed your trust of her. If you then come home from work and quiz her about the day, question her discipline methods or otherwise act like you’re suspicious of her, she will quickly become frustrated. If you have a problem with the way that she is doing her job, it should be discussed openly and dealt with promptly. It is important for nannies, parents and children to be happy in their working relationship, so she would much rather discuss any issues you have in a professional manner.

Your nanny’s time is her time

If you have a live-in nanny, you must be firm about the boundaries that have been set. If your nanny works, for example, Monday to Friday 8-6, the weekends and evenings are her time. This means that the children shouldn’t be allowed to knock on her door, and she shouldn’t be called upon to work in any kind of capacity. Having said that, your nanny may not mind the children popping in to see her on a Saturday morning, and if she’s not busy she might not have a problem with watching them whilst you pop to the shops quickly, but these boundaries should be set in advance. Again, open and honest discussion from the start is key to a happy working relationship.

Leave the home how you would like it left

Nannies are not usually employed as housekeepers too, but just as a stay-at-home parent would, she will pick up after herself and the children throughout the day, leaving the house in a respectable state for when you arrive home to take over. In return, it is not too much for her to expect the house to be left in the same way for her when she arrives to work in the morning. It is not fair to expect your nanny to arrive to a sink full of dirty dishes and the school uniforms in the laundry basket needing to be ironed.

Make your nanny feel valued

Your nanny is your employee, but she is also a valued member of your family. If she feels unappreciated, she will likely look elsewhere for work. It is not difficult to show your appreciation of her without crossing professional boundaries. Offering a bonus once or twice a year is a great way to make her feel important – this could be a monetary bonus, or some extra paid holiday time. Little things, like remembering her birthday and having the children make cards for her, will really make your nanny feel as though she is a welcome and valued member of your family.

Keeping hold of a good nanny is important, and not just for your own convenience. Having a constant stream of different caregivers is not good for children, who need to form attachments to those who look after them.

Nanny and Private use of Car

If you have provided nanny with private use of a car, you need to inform HMRC straightaway. The quickest way is to complete a form P46 car

By notifying them straightaway, they will reduce nanny’s tax code the month she is given the car.

Failure to tell them when she has the car, will mean her tax code will be coded incorrectly causing an under payment.

Even though you have notified HMRC of the car via a P46 car, you will need to complete a P11d and pay Class 1A National Insurance on the benefit amount.

Please see link below

www.gov.uk/tell-hmrc-company-car

30 Hours Free Childcare

The criteria for 30 hours for funded childcare, is that you must earn £131.36 a week which equates to 16 hours at the national minimum wage or Living Wage.

The 30 hours a week is for 38 weeks of the year and is for children who are aged 3 or 4 this equates to 1,140 hours per year.

You will not be able to claim this, if you or your partner has a taxable income of over £100,000, the child does not usually live with you, if the child is fostered or if you are from outside the EEA and it states you can’t access public funds on your UK residence card.

To register for funded childcare or for more questions:

https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

RTI Real Time Information

RTI stands for Real Time Information and was introduced by HMRC in 2012. HMRC put this system into place so that every time an employee is paid, it is the employer’s responsibility to make a submission to them detailing this payment.

By employers using RTI, it enables HMRC to process any amendments to employee’s tax free allowance in real time rather than as done previously on previous years records and pass this information to Department for Work and Pensions. In turn this makes sure Universal Tax Credit claims are based on accurate figures of an employee’s income.

As an employer, if your payroll submission is not sent to HMRC on time, £100 fines will be issued. It is important as an employer to make sure all pay details are sent to HMRC on or before the date nanny is paid.

Nanny or Au Pair

Age and Cultural exchange programme

An au pair is between the ages of 18-30 and comes to the UK to learn or perfect her English in exchange for childcare.

A nanny can be any age and does not take part in a cultural exchange programme.

Wage and working hours

Au pairs can only work on average 30 hours a week and on top of their accommodation will normally get what is classed as ‘pocket money’. ‘Pocket money’ on average is £100.00 per week and as long as they earn less than £118.00 per week and have no other income this does not need to be declared to HMRC.

A nanny receives a wage in line with the national minimum wage.

Language courses

Au pairs must have the chance to attend a language course.

A nanny does not have to attend a language course.

Employee/family

An au pair is seen as a temporary family member.

A nanny is seen as an employee.

Legalities

An au pair needs a visa specific to an au pair.

Nannies who are coming from abroad need a work visa or permit. A nanny cannot work under an au pair visa.