general queries re employing childminder

A

Aoicol

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Hi. I am employing a childminder in my home for the first time and have a few general queries:
1. I understand I have to register as employer and pay PRSI. Are there any other costs associated with being an employer?
2. How do you generate payslips - do I need to get a payroll software package for one employee or is it easy to just work out taxes on excel and do payslips another way?
Trying to keep costs to a minimum so any advice appreciated.
 
1. You will need to pay holidays / bank holidays (statutory for full time is 4 week's holidays plus 9 bank holidays)
2. I would recommend getting a payroll package. You can work the taxes out on excel but it will be quicker and easier on a payroll package.
Are you aware of PAYE modernisation which is coming up in Jan 2019? You will need to upload all employee pay details to ROS each pay period before any payment is made to the employee.
 
Why not use a crèche. I had a childminder for two years. It was much more expensive than the crèche. We paid cash weekly did not use a payroll package. Cost us up to 450 per week. Moved to a crèche 12 months ago and have not looked back. Great for kids to mix with other kids. I felt the childminder spent a lot of time on the phone and Social media. She also took a few other liberties which were not part of the deal. In the crèche there is more structure to the day and all the staff have childcare qualifications. They also open later and there are no missed days because of family issues, hospital appointments, hairdressers etc. After initial reservations I am sorry I did not send my kids sooner. I'm a creche convert.
 
Thanks for reply’s. We are Moving from a Creche as with three children, a childminder will be more convenient albeit more expensive.
 
You may not have to do any of that if you are actually using a childminder, most of whom are self employed (and usually use their own home and have multiple clients) and set their own hours, terms and holidays.
If you are taking on someone to be employed solely by you, in your home, working your timetable and so on, what you have there is a nanny rather than a childminder. And there is a lot more to it than just paying the PRSI, you need proper advice on being an employer. You need to register, maintain proper records, do all deductions from pay and file them, you need to understand all your obligations as an employee so holiday pay and rights, annual leave, sick leave/pay, all employee rights etc.....
 
Hi, I employed a childminder in my home. You need to register as an employer with Revenue (ring them and they do this for you) - for me the employer number was the same as my PPS number. You need to register for ROS. Revenue then send you (via ROS) a file that contains the employee's tax allowance, cut off points etc which you use for your payroll process. I did mine in a spreadsheet and created payslips in excel, formatted to look like a payslip and converted to pdf. I had to do an annual return on ROS and produce a P60.

For me it was quite straightforward "payroll" for one person (once it was up an running), and I could check the figures in the online PAYE calculators. I am not an accountant but work in financial services so was not intimidated by this. I do not think you need to buy software if you have an understanding of how tax works.

I agreed an annual salary with the childminder and an hourly overtime rate. Only additional cost is employers PRSI.

I wrote a contract (based on a template I got from internet) for nannies. Agreed 20 days annual leave (contract saying that these would "normally be taken during the school holidays" plus the working days between Christmas and new year. Contract said she would get to choose 2 weeks and we could choose 2 weeks, and we would endeavour to agree a plan at the beginning of each year. In practice it was done by mutual agreement with a bit of give and take. Contract contained notice period.

I left a purse with "spending money" for the kids (which was not much during term time but a good bit during holidays) and said in the contract that she needed to keep all receipts (which she did) but over time this was taken entirely on trust.

I listed "duties" in the contract and talked it through with her to make sure we were both on the same page. It was related to childcare and cooking / tidying for the kids - I did not expect her to clean the house.

The contract said I would pay the first 5 sick days in any year. In practice she was rarely sick.

At the time we had 1 car (we both went to work on the dart). She was insured on the car and contract required her to have a full driving license and report any penalty points.

Yes there is some hassle factor in initial set up of all this, and it is the dearest form of childcare. But by being fair and above board, I got an amazing woman who became part of the family, who worked for us for 4.5 years from when my youngest was 6 months old till she started junior infants. I had zero issues from an "employer" perspective. My two older kids also got complete continuity and were able to be dropped and picked up from school (she dealt with playschool and different primary school pick up times). Kids had friends over, had dinner in their own home, help with their homework and everything that a parent at home would provide They didn't have to be "dropped" anywhere in the mornings. She started at 8.15am and we both staggered our working hours to make sure we stuck to her hours of 8.15-6.15. If you get the right person it is the "rolls royce" of childcare and I have no regrets about it.

The difficult stage comes when the youngest starts being eligible for the free pre-school place. At the time this was 3 hours out of a 10 hour day which with drop off and pick up is more like 2.5 hours. During school term time only. Some people try to reduce the amount they pay at this stage if this can be done by mutual consent - but bear in mind these are not hours someone can fill unless they want personal time.
 
Thanks for the advice. I will get on to Revenue. Have agreed a fixed monthly wage so working out taxes should be relatively straightforward but will need to brush up on my excel skills to create payslips. Would you know where to get any templates?
 
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