I wrote up a basic form myself for anyone working directly for me as a Private Conrtractor.

You want it to state that:

they understand they are working as a Private Contractor;

You will not be collecting taxes for them or making any payments for them;

You are not collecting or paying any Social Security monies on their behalf;

and, have them sign this.

Having said all this above, it is something you may not be able to do. There are strict IRS rules about who can be a Private Contractor and who is your employee.... and what you must do as an employer.

For us the Caretakers would have been Employees and I would have had to collect Federal and State taxes and their share of SS, and pay my share of SS. In CA I would have also had to pay into the workman's compensation fund and other fees as an employer.

Which is why I hired an agency to hire, fire and take care of all the bookwork necessary to have Caretakers.

FYI: Hiring someone 'under the table" can get you in BIG trouble when they turn 66 and try to collect Social Security... which wasn't paid in their behalf - by you. Then they'll get you for ALL the back taxes that weren't paid.

None of ours were illegals, but several had green cards. We only had a few that were actually bad. Most were simply unable to care for DH because of a need for a higher level of skills than most caretakers have. Most were new CNAs and so still lacked the experience needed for DH who needed true nursing care. Our agency had three - 3! - with those needed skills... and I had all three working here. Not that the rest weren't capable for taking good care of Granny who needed help more than nursing care.

One thing I didn't mention earlier that I probably should have. If you have things you don't want taken or looked at then lock them up! I had locks put on two closets and my office. I never regretted doing so.

CaKate . We locked up important things too, put deadbolt lock on 1 bedroom door but 1 woman cleaned out my dad's motor home while I was in ER with mom. Dad had a lot of power tools out there. Dad was terrified when I got back. They had threatened him & he started shaking so I told him it would never happen again & called agency & fired her. I never found out from dad exactly what happened as I was afraid he would have a heart attack talking about it. She tried to come back & I told her to get off the property or I was calling the police. Agency acted like I was the problem. Make sure you know the caregiver's full name & address & phone number(she wouldn't give us anything but 1st name, should have been a red flag but when you are exhausted you don't always think so clearly & I had 2 people over 90 to care for. Part of the time I found it easier to do it all myself as training them & filling in for them when they didn't feel like coming was more work than doing it myself.

I had locks put on two closet doors and the office. We still had things stolen -- expensive paring knives, stainless flatware, money in purses left out by accident, toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, soap, shampoo, that kind of thing. I finally complained to both the head of the house cleaners and the Caretaker agency because I didn't have enough flatware left to set the table! The knives re-arrived quickly and most of the flatware eventually showed-up. I have no idea who took things home - on purpose or by accident, but it finally stopped. (But then, I finally would only allow our 4 really good caretakers in the house, and I know that helped too.)

Sunny, I know what you mean by the agency expecting you to train their workers. When DH got bad enough I just took care of him when one of our four really good ones couldn't make it. I would have had to stay right with DH and the new caretaker anyway to train them... which was not my job!

Interesting thing that disappeared was fish . It would be on sale & I'd buy some & freeze it & go to get it to cook for mom & it would be gone, happened 3-4 times & I realized Asian ladies like fish!! Didn't say anything just didn't buy any unless we were going to eat it right away.

Well, ones my parents had they paid cash for caregiver, cleaner, their gardener they paid by cash too but she paid out. Its up to them what they do as it depends on the money, I worked as self nanny but earned too little to put for that to pay out and so didn't for those times but through a nanny agency I got more and they did all that for me. I think its something you talk about to them and between you both and its up to them.