Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Re: paying babysitters and liability

[Sue Pniewski (SPniewski]

I would suggest if you are to employ anybody as a cash employee, you should
have them fill out the required I-9 and W-4 and then at the end of the year
report on a 1099.  Then you would not be expected to pay any employer taxes,
the employee would be required to sort all of that out themselves.  But, to
their benefit, they can then deduct a ton of expenses making the payment and
taxable amount negligible.  YOu should have a stock agreement to use with
everybody that states in clear terms that they are an independent
contractor, they are responsible for all injuries, they are responsible for
all their errors and omissions, and taxes, and they you provide no insurance
coverage for them.  It should also say they agree to indemnify you for any
and all legal bills incurred as a result of their employment with your
group.  Then they will have little leg to stand on in the case of an injury,
no attorney will take that kind of case without a fat retainer up front,
which few people will be willing to part with, and they will still lose in
the end.  You protect yourselves that way from the IRS, liability, and from
misunderstandings.  I have a form that could be modified to suit your needs,
I'd be happy to share.


-------------------------------------
Susan Pniewski, Esq.
General Counsel
Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville
904.798.2712  x202

        'If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams; and
live the life which you have imagined, you will meet with a success
unmatched in common hours...
        If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost;
for that is where they should be.
        Now put the foundations under them.' 
        -Henry David Thoreau



-----Original Message-----
From: Lynn Nadeau [mailto:welcome [at] olympus.net]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 2:24 AM
To: cohousing L
Subject: [C-L]_Re: paying babysitters and liability



>The worst that can happen in any case is that you have a tax audit and pay
a
>fine or back taxes. 
Lynn here. I didn't make our concern clear. We are not worried about 
"nanny" laws or unpaid taxes, but about liability suits in the case of 
injury. Sitter breaks his back while subduing freaked out child, or is 
tripped by a chair in the kid room, etc. If he were simply a visitor 
wandering through RoseWind, and broke his leg in a hole on the commons, 
it would be paid by our general liability coverage. But such coverage is 
void if the person is there for pay.

The bad experience we had was with a fellow who was doing a leftover job 
at the end of our common-house construction. This once, we didn't go the 
cautious route and hire him through the co-op which dealt with his Social 
Security, workman's comp premiums, etc. Instead we paid him cash, with 
the implicit understanding that either he'd pay his own insurance, or 
take the risk of not having any in place. He fell off a ladder (never 
even alleging any negligence on our part) and the long story that ensued 
cost us many many person hours and thousands of dollars  in legal 
counsel, without it ever even going to a lawsuit. We ended up in trouble 
with L&I and the IRS, with back payments and penalties, but mainly we 
were scared we might get sued by him for all sorts of damages: at one 
point we heard the possible figure of $400,000!

It seems unlikely that a babysitter would get hurt and sue us for it, but 
the above scenario also seemed unlikely, given that the fellow was a 
friend and seemed very laid-back. Then they talk to their spouse or 
neighbor and it's whiplash and mental anguish and lost pay and who knows 
what else. 

As for having a separate "club" account, we do something like that for 
our meal accounting,  but it's easy to show that that money really does 
stay in a closed loop for food purchases. If we use the "club" account to 
hide the fact that we are paying a sitter, any insurance investigator 
worth her salary could figure that out. Even from our emails discussing 
how to avoid the liability!

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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