Deborah Shure, centre, runs a bookkeeping service called Nanny Tax.
With her are nanny Jona Demillo and her children, from left, Ella, Adam and Ethan Rennert.
February 28, 2009
Trish Crawford
Living Reporter
Nannies shovelling driveways and mowing lawns.
Nannies being hired at $1,600 a month but getting $900.
Nannies spending their "vacations" babysitting at the cottage.
These are just some of the ways Canadians try to save a buck when it comes to their caregivers.
In the U.S., this nickel-and-diming has cost some public figures plum political appointments – including U.S. President Barack Obama's nominee for chief performance officer, Nancy Killefer, who failed to pay employment taxes for a household worker and removed her name for consideration.
Others' transgressions include employing illegal immigrants or those without work permits and failing to pay social security taxes.
Now, at tax time, it is imperative that Canadians – who have escaped their own Nannygate scandal so far – pay the proper taxes for employing a nanny.
Entrepreneur Michelle Bacani-Lim hired a live-in nanny in July to help with her two children, ages 3 1/2 and 1 1/2. Working from home at the time, she found she couldn't handle work and child care without a pair of helping hands.
"She's fantastic," says Bacani-Lim, of Brampton, who now works in sales in the fitness industry. She and her nanny share a Filipino background.
Having a nanny in her home isn't something she takes lightly, Bacani-Lim says. "It's very daunting to look at yourself as an employer."
She turned to consultant Deborah Shure's tax service nannytax.ca because she wanted everything to be above board.
"I didn't want to have to worry."
Shure, a mother of three young children who has employed three nannies from the Philippines over the past seven years, says many people miss the serious implications of hiring someone to live and work in their home.
"What many people don't understand," says Shure, "is that they are a real employer. When you employ a nanny, you are an employer."
That means an array of federal and provincial income taxes, Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board premiums must be paid on the employee's behalf, Shure says.
Under Canada's live-in caregiver program, families sponsor a nanny, who is eligible to apply for permanent resident status after working 24 months (which could include a number of employers) within a three-year time span.
The nannies' contracts clearly spell out hours and wages (usually a 40-hour week at minimum wage of $9.25 an hour) with a deduction for room and board of $369 a month.
With all the proper deductions, including an employer contribution for both the pension and workplace insurance, the nanny nets about $1,000 a month, Shure says.
Thousands of nannies, mostly from the Philippines, have come to Canada under this program, launched in 1992, and many continue to work in the field after they become citizens.
From 2002 to September 2008, more than 49,000 live-in caregivers were given permission to work in Canada, while 34,000 received permanent resident status.
An employer's costs are much higher for nannies who choose not to live with the family, Shure says, because there's no deduction for room and board.
Also, live-out nannies, expect to work for more than the minimum wage, Shure says. Some who drive cars may expect to pocket $1,600 to $2,000 a month. (Daycare costs, in comparison, are roughly $1,400 a month for an infant, $850 a month for a pre-schooler and $600 a month for after-school care.)
No matter what deal is struck between the family and the nanny, all taxes still have to be paid, Shure says. The family will not be able to claim child-care costs without proper documentation.
Parents can claim yearly child care costs of $7,000 per child younger than 7, and $4,000 for those ages 7 to 16, which help offset the salary costs.
Yes, this is complicated. Yes, it is expensive to hire care. But, as Shure says, you are teaching your children a valuable lesson by properly compensating the person who takes care of them all day.
"You are telling your children something important," says Shure, whose nanny eats with the family and is included in special events.
You must spell out paid sick days and vacation days in any contract, Shure says. Two weeks vacation after a year's work and five sick days a year are common.
"I encourage my nanny to take a day off when she's sick. I don't want her to get more sick and the kids to get sick, too," Shure says.
Tova Rich, who runs Family Matters Caregivers Inc.and goes to Hong Kong four times a year to hire Filipino nannies there, says $1,600 a month gross pay is the average arrangement with a Canadian family. The sponsoring family pays the agency fee of about $1,000 and the candidate pays the cost of flying here.
Rich says she interviews potential employers and won't make any placements for people she doesn't think will treat their nanny right.
"I can spot them a mile away – who will underpay and overwork their nanny. We are very strict about what is the law. You can't negotiate out of it."
People are wrong-headed if they try to cheat their nanny in any way, she says. "A happy nanny means a happy child."
The biggest mistake employers make, Rich says, is thinking the nanny can just fit into a Canadian household without being acclimatized. Her firm offers one free cooking class to new nannies as part of its package. She says the No. 1 complaint she hears from employers is, "She doesn't even know how to make Kraft dinner."
Live-out nannies are asking for $500 a week after deductions, Rich says, and they may also want a Metropass. Someone recently asked for a live-out nanny for $400 a week and Rich replied, "You won't find someone for that."
Rich monitors the nannies after they arrive.
In one case, she removed a nanny from a home when the pay sank to $900 a month "because that's all they could afford."
In another case, a petite nanny was being asked to shovel snow and mow the lawn.
Rich says she hears horror stories from nannies placed by other firms. Once, she found out a nanny was asked to work in a home-based daycare (which is strictly forbidden under federal rules). Another time, a nanny told her she was sleeping "like Harry Potter" under the stairs.
Andrew Lederman, who owns Nannies on the Hill, says he has had only one bad placement in three years. It involved a family that argued horribly all the time.
After a week, he picked up the nanny, who had begun to fear for her safety, and found her another home.
"I'm the middle man, the interested third party and social worker," says Lederman, who charges roughly $950 per placement.
Employers are responsible for treating their nanny with respect, Lederman says, and to pay proper wages and all relevant taxes.
"Remember," he says, "these people are going to be Canadian citizens."
And it's the law.
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