This reminder from California attorney Bob King at www.legallynanny.com: “If you’re a family hiring someone in your home, always negotiate based on gross, not net, pay. Net pay agreements make it more difficult to calculate overtime and could allow the employee to overwithhold taxes at your expense. You can always determine the net pay, but any agreement should be based on gross hourly wages.” Why…

For 2012, the domestic employee wage threshold under Federal law for paying Social Security taxes will rise to $1,800. Earnings below this amount will not be subject to Social Security taxes. This limit is up from $1,700 in 2011. Under California law, the thresholds will stay at $750 and $1000. Specifically: You must register with the Employment Development Department (EDD) as a household employer for…

One of the important conversations that we have with new clients to Town & Country is whether they have thought about how they will handle payroll for their new nanny, housekeeper or other household employee.  We don’t have reliable data on what portion of household employees in this country are paid “off the books” or “under the table,” but we suspect the percentage is pretty…