Employment Contract & Rent a Room Scheme

M

mrsg09

Registered User
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hi there,

I was hoping to get some advice re an employment contract with our childminder.

in light of the recent 'au pair' case I want to set in stone our arrangement with our current childcarer to make sure there is no ambiguity in the future.

we want to pay our childminder a wage of 10euros per hour which she has agreed to, we then want to have a separate contract with her for her to rent a floor of our house (own stairs, own rooms, the rest of the family don't use this part of the house) for below the market rate.

is this possible? as we are not paying the childminder the minimum wage does this mean we can agree amongst ourselves the rent which would be charged for the room and not be restricted to the 'room and board' figure of 54euro per week contained in the minimum wage legislation?

many thanks in advance for your advice

mrsg
 
Have you crunched the numbers on paying minimum wage but charging market value for the rental under the rent a room scheme which can be up to €12,000 a year?
Reduce the 'roam and board' figure by a corresponding amount to 'board' only?
 
sorry I don't understand your question.
if say we pay 10euros per hour for 30hours a week it would mean 300euros a week pay.

we would then have a separate contract for the rental of the room and board for 100euros rent and 30euros utility bills and board (just for example we haven't done a search on the market prices yet we live in Dublin 18) so out of her 300pay she would owe us 130 for room and board
 
Sorry I misunderstood your first post "as we are not paying the minimum wage" to mean you were paying less than it. In fact, you are paying more than the minimum wage, and are thinking along the same lines as I was suggesting i.e. increase the nominal pay but recoup it via rent.

I think you should be ok as long as the rent you are charging isn't excessively high in comparison with market rental rates in your area. That would raise eyebrows if questions were ever asked about the arrangement and you want to avoid that.

You might be able to get an indication of that from DAFT.
 
thanks for your advice. in light of the recent 'au pair' case I want to make sure we have a contract in place to make sure our agreement is in writing and we don't expose ourselves to future litigation at any stage.
 
You need a nanny contract of employment

You can find samples of these online

You need to make a tax return for the minder - and give payslips - an accountant can do these quite cheaply if you shop around

I'm not sure will she have to pay usc or much tax on that but you might want to factor that in too - someone on here should be able to advice.
She will need a PPS number

Also you need to ensure your home insurance covers domestic workers

I agree with you it is better to do things above board

It should not take long to set it up
 
Revenue will not allow your live in nanny ie your employee to board under the rent a room scheme.. It's the €54 calculation they allow.

You are however free to rent the room to anyone else and employ a live out nanny.
 
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