It's becoming increasingly common for two or more families to share a nanny between them, and currently about 20% of all Nannytax clients are in a share. This figure has been rising steadily in the last few years, and we have seen a dramatic increase since September 2008. We expect this trend to continue as nannysharing provides an affordable solution to the childcare dilemma, especially in the current economic climate.

What is a nannyshare?
A nannyshare is where two (or more) families employ the same nanny to either care for all children at the same time, or work, say 3 days for one family and 2 days for the other. Although it isn’t necessary for the families to know each other, some communication between them is advisable; in fact lack of communication is one of the main reasons it can take a long time to set up a share or why they sometimes fail altogether.

Agree a gross and protect your total cost
Nannytax recommends that all pay arrangements are made on a gross basis. There are many reasons why you should do this, and to read more about the down-sides of agreeing a net wage click here. It's especially important to agree a gross wage if you are in a nannyshare. A gross pay agreement will automatically protect your total cost, and so it doesn’t matter if the current share dissolves or if you fall out. If you agree a gross wage the communication between you and the other family can also be kept to a minimum.

Tax code splits
If you have agreed a net wage with your nanny Nannytax recommends that her tax code is split. A tax code split means that the nanny's tax code is split proportionately between her jobs. It is a very straight-forward exercise, mainly because our nannyshare team deals directly with a tax code specialist at our dedicated tax office, but before a tax code split can be applied we need approval from the nanny.

How does it work?

1. Both employers submit the details of the share arrangement to our nannyshare team
2. We then send a letter to the nanny outlining the arrangement and the proposed tax code split, which nanny needs to sign and return to us
3. Once we have received nanny's approval we fax the request to our specialist at the tax office
4. The new tax codes are normally notified to us within 48 hours