Registering as employer with HMRC?? What about paye??

I had read that as I am employing my husband as my assistant I need to register myself as an employer but having read about this on the HMRC website it looks like I don't need too because he won't be getting paid very much. Because of that I cannot use the HMRC PAYE Basic Tools for pay slips etc.

Just wondering what other childminders who are employers do??

Any help would be gratefully received, as there is very little information out there!

Thanks

Nina

You would be better off paying you dh as self employed and then he can put in a tax return. No fiddling around with paperwork then, apart from an invoice from him to you each week/month

I know that sounds better but I just can't see how he can be self employed as I am telling him what hours and days he needs to work. How can he be self employed? Contracts with parents are in my name as presumably they cannot be if he is "an Assistant". Struggling to get my head around it.

I believe you can register as a partnership - that's what I am looking into at the moment as my partner is registering as my assistant. As I understand it we both do a self employed tax return & a partnership return. I'm not fully clued up yet but might be worth looking into.

Are you giving him a contract for set days and times? Is he free to work elsewhere? If he is free then he can be self employed.

I employ an accounting service who do up to 3 people and everything relating to wages for £12 per month, including payslips and P60's at the end of the year, also all returns to the HMRC which have to be in at a specific time each month as of October (one less thing for me to do) :)

I registered with Brightpay - it is a free payroll system and provides the software to calculate tax and produces payslips and P45's etc.
It is free for under 3 employees and very very straightforward to use. It also submits it all to HMRC with one click of the button. really great.

HOWEVER, to use this you need to register as an employer through HMRC so you have an HMRC employer number and this I found a pain in the neck! But phone the HMRC phone line and ask them as they were quite helpful. My assistant did end up working elsewhere and the HMRC sent new tax code for her so it is good to be registered. If at a later date your husband works over the threshold (about £116 a week I think? ) then it will be good to have him all set up.

You are right that you do not have to register but if you then employed more staff (for cover say) or if your husband worked elsewhere - even for a few hours a week - then you would need to be registered and I felt it would be easier to have all the payroll stuff on the system and done 'properly' so that I wouldn't need to go back and transfer it all on at a alter date (if you see what I mean)

If he is self employed then he writes you an invoice of what he has worked and you pay him. The invoice goes on your expenses and he sorts his own tax return out. Much simpler in my opinion but I have no idea about partnership tax returns I am afraid!

Very best wishes and good luck!