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Question

We are hiring a new nanny. This one is a much more experienced nanny who will be paid a higher salary. She will be using her own car and I know that if she keeps track of mileage of car during work hours we can reimburse non-taxable at the current rate (about $.55 per mile right now I think). What other non-taxable benefits can we provide to her to give her more benefits without incurring more taxes above her salary? - stipend for a cell phone? - any other car usage amount like a % of her car payment? - can all of her auto insurance be paid by us and be non-taxable? - I know that health insurance is one that we can do - what documentation would we need if it is provided as a stipend? - any other things that I am missing as possibilities? - when we provide $ based on her mileage - what documentation do we need to keep? - we know an approximation of mileage that she will need to use for all of the kids activities - is that mapquest estimate good enough or does she need to keep a log?

Submitted: 25 days and 18 hours ago.
Category: Tax
Value: $15
Status: CLOSED
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State/Country relating to question: North Carolina

Posted by TaxMomNJ 25 days and 18 hours ago.

Answer

Tmschade,

Technically, since she is providing a service to you, anything you pay for her is taxable to her. You may pay bills for her but she must include them in income and then deduct them, which will not truly reduce her tax burden. What you can do to reduce her tax liability is to treat her as a Household Employee. See publication here: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p926/ar02.html#en_US_publink100086722

What happens with a "self-employed individual" is they are subject to pay the employer AND employee's portion of the social security and medicare taxes. That is equal to 15.3% of her net income. If you treat her as a household employee, you can pay 7.65% of these taxes and withhold 7.65% from her OR you can elect to pay the full 15.3% yourself. This will reduce her tax burden.

Please let me know if I can assist you further.

25 days and 9 hours ago.

Reply

Sorry - I may not have been clear - she is a household employee and we pay all taxes as appropriate. I was speaking off benefits aside from her salary knowing that some are non-taxable such as offering health insurance.

Accepted Answer

Tmschade,

What you might do to provide nontaxable benefits is: calculate what percentage her car and cell phone are used for services to your family and what percentage are personal use. If you ONLY pay the portion of her car insurance and cell phone that is used for service to your family, this will not be a taxable benefit to her.

Other considerations for nontaxable benefits are a retirement plan and education expenses (providing the education is bettering herself to take care of your children).

There are several ways to keep records of the expenses you paid- bank account statements, receipts, cancelled checks. As far as the mileage goes, she should have a log that shows the date, how many miles were driven, and the purpose of the drive (school to soccer practice, school to grocery store). Keeping a log for mileage is a good idea, especially for IRS purposes so it is documented that everything was done in accordance with tax law.

Please let me know if I can help you further.

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Expert: TaxMomNJ
Pos. Feedback: 100.0 %
Accepts: 
Answered: 10/27/2009

Tax Advisor

5 years experience with tax preparation company, over 200 hours of tax courses taken

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