Nanny Taxes and Payroll in BC: What You're Actually Responsible For

Hire a nanny directly and you become an **employer**, not a customer. That single fact drives everything else on this page.

Before going further: this is a description of how the arrangement works, not tax advice. For what to file and when, talk to the **Canada Revenue Agency** or an accountant who handles household employment. Getting this wrong is expensive, and it is not the place to rely on a blog post — including this one.

What being the employer actually means

When a nanny works in your home under your direction, on your schedule, using your equipment, the CRA generally treats that as employment rather than a contract for services. Calling someone a contractor does not make them one; the nature of the working relationship decides it, and misclassification is assessed after the fact.

As the employer you are generally responsible for registering as one, running payroll, withholding and remitting the required deductions, issuing year-end slips, and meeting BC employment standards on wages, overtime, statutory holidays, and vacation pay. WorkSafeBC coverage is a separate question and one worth asking them about directly, because it is the piece families most often assume is handled somewhere else.

None of that is exotic. It is just work, and it is ongoing, and it starts the day the nanny starts.

Where placement sits

A placement fee buys a search, not an employment relationship. Puffin Services sources candidates, runs CRRP vulnerable-sector screening and reference verification, and presents two to three matched candidates — and then **your nanny becomes your employee.** Our Terms say it plainly: *the placement fee never includes the nanny's wages.*

There is an optional payroll and hours-tracking add-on at **$99/month**, cancellable for the following month at any time. Read what it does carefully: it assists with the work. It does not transfer the obligation. You remain the employer of record either way.

Where hourly care sits

Different arrangement entirely. Puffin Services caregivers on hourly bookings are **our** employees. We handle their wages, payroll, and remittances, and we register with WorkSafeBC and pay the premiums. You book a shift and pay for it. You are not an employer, you file nothing, and there is no year-end anything.

That is the actual structural difference between the two products, and it matters more than the hourly rate when you are comparing them.

Questions worth asking before you hire

Ask the CRA or your accountant, not a forum:

Every one of those has a real answer, and none of them has a general one that fits every household.

The short version

Placement means you employ someone, with everything that carries. Hourly care means we do. Both are legitimate; they are simply different arrangements, and the paperwork lives in different places.

If you want the second one, there is nothing to set up.