You have a new baby in the house, you are not sleeping well, and you need to line up a great nanny before you return to work. Or mom is declining and you have to hire a senior caregiver to stay with her while you are working because she just is not safe alone any longer. Hiring caregivers, whether a nanny for your children or someone to care for your aging loved one, is a stressful experience.

Topics: elder care, senior caregivers, household payroll tax

The Internal Revenue Service issued new 2013 income tax withholding schedules yesterday and they are fully integrated with our online tax calculator now. We are fielding a lot of inquiries about new paycheck amounts and will try to address the common questions here:

Topics: calculate nanny payroll tax, household paycheck calculator

Topics: elder care, household payroll tax, payroll tax enforcement

The beautiful baby has arrived and mom is preparing to return to work. The new parents begin interviewing nannies, a stressful endeavor for all concerned! Will she keep my baby safe? Will she love my child? Can I depend on her to be on time and not call out at the last minute? Does she have the experience I am looking for? Can I afford her? The absolutely last thing on the new parent's mind in these interviews is tax and labor law, and this is where nanny and family can find themselves out of sync.

Topics: nanny hourly wage, nanny work agreement, nanny wage

 The US DOL has proposed a series of rules changes that will result in a substantial number of elder care and home care workers being covered by the Fair Labor Standards Acts' (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime protections. This continues a trend of increased regulation and enforcement in the area of domestic service employees, with an increasing number of household workers being subject to Wage and Hour protections and enforcement. The proposal more strictly limits and defines the services of a "companion," and states that household employers MUST maintain accurate and contemporaneous time tracking records and pay household staff for every hour on duty. It also states that employees of third party employers such as staffing agencies are not exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections. Public comments will be solicited when the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

Topics: elder care, senior caregivers, homecare, companionship services, companionship exemption

Update: In 2014, the Household Employee Wage threshold increased to $1900. This means that any household employee- such as a nanny, housekeeper or elder care worker- earning $1900 or more per year requires their employer to pay what is commonly referred to as the "nanny tax."

Topics: nanny payroll tax, nanny tax, worker misclassification independent contractor, nanny employee, domestic employer legal responsibilities

There is an excellent article on the Washington State Workers Compensation Insurance Blog that outlines the dangers of not paying the nanny taxes, and the potential benefits to the employer for nanny tax compliance. Quoted is one of HomeWork Solutions' favorite go-to industry experts, attorney Bob King of Legally Nanny.

Topics: nanny workers compensation insurance, nanny tax, nanny tax compliance