So I'm a terrible housekeeper. Just horrible. I hate doing it. So I was sitting here stoned out of my head when I thought "hell, it sure would be nice to have a cleaning lady clean this shit hole for me." Well, I hopped on the Merry Maids website and in their FAQ they have this question: "What is the difference between Merry Maids and a cleaning lady or housekeeper?" And here is their answer: Seriously? This is a perfect example of just some of the bullshit people have to put up with just to hire someone to clean their house once a week. No wonder the cost of doing business goes up every year. There has got to be a better way of doing things.
Unfortunately, there needs to be a verification of citizenship and identity to facilitate taxation and immigration. Fortunately, You can complete those "bullshit" tasks in about an hour and not have to clean your house again all year.
The better way is to hire an independent contractor, not a "household employee". Unless you are looking for a butler to become part of your household staff (in which case you probably also have an accountant), having a housekeeper come a couple of times a month qualifies as hiring an independent contractor, in which case you do not have to withhold taxes, pay unemployment taxes, or any thing else an "employer" would have to do. It's no different then contracting out for any other service. As an independent contractor your housekeeper (whether you hire her through Merry Maids or Craig's List) is responsible for filing and paying taxes on their earnings.
It's expensive to create jobs and its only going to get more expensive in the next few years. I wonder why...
We got it. We just disagree. I know that doesn't make you happy, but you could try to respond to someone's post, and see if they'll enlighten you.
Your point was made based on a somewhat nonfactual statement from Merry Maids. You wouldn't have anyone come to work in/on your house without a contract, right? So you draw up an independent contractor agreement. It's really not that complicated.
His point was that on a normal planet if you wanted someone to clean your house regularly, that's between you and the cleaner. But here in the US, the state injects itself into the otherwise private arrangement and demands obedience to licensing, barriers to entry, complicated regulations, taxes, fees, etc. All of these things serve to discourage competition and make doing business more expensive, often at the expense of the little guy to the benefit of larger, established businesses. Under the guise of 'safety' and 'fairness', of course.
well that is a bunch of complicated shit.. what you should do is just hire some hispanic lady and pay her cash... she will do a good ass job, and you can avoid all that bullshit...what i would do, clean my own house.
What does regulation do? Make Kingmonkey bitch about having to either clean up after himself or write up a contract with a cleaner?
It raises the cost of doing business and makes him do all this unnecessary crap for someone to do something as simple as clean his house once a week. I know he probably feels that it's just easier to fire the cleaner. Because it is, if you want to create jobs in America, stop making it easier to get away with murder, then to open a small business. That's all I'm saying.
He can clean his own mess for free or buy a pen, paper, and sign a contract for less than a dollar... that's all I'm saying.
The whole point of hiring household help through an agency is to avoid having to go through direct hiring, accounting, paperwork, etc. This is the preface, left out of the original post, which is included in tne Merry Maids website explanation of their handling the payroll, deductions, etc., for their workers.