How do we hire a nanny or cleaner?

If you hire a nanny or housekeeper, set their hours and tell them what to do, you’re usually their employer. That means payroll deductions, a T4 slip each year and your province’s employment standards. A cleaner who runs their own business is different.

Are you an employer?

The CRA says that if you hire a caregiver, babysitter or domestic worker, set their working hours and assign and supervise the work, you’re probably their employer. If you’re not sure, you can ask the CRA for a ruling. You can hire through an agency, which finds and checks candidates: ask whether the agency or you will be the employer. Agree hours, duties, pay, holidays and notice in a written contract.

Payroll: what you deduct and pay

1. Register for a business number and a payroll account with the CRA before the first payday
2. Deduct income tax, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions and Employment Insurance (EI) premiums from each payment. In Quebec it’s the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and lower EI, and Quebec has its own slips and filing
3. Add your share: the same CPP again and 1.4 times the employee’s EI
4. Send it to the CRA by the due date, which depends on when you pay, not the period the work covers
5. Give a T4 slip and file a T4 summary by the last day of February

Late T4 slips cost C$25 a day for each slip, at least C$100 and up to C$2,500. Many families use a payroll service or accountant. Check the CRA payroll deduction tables each January

Provincial rules

Pay, hours, overtime, holidays and notice come from your province’s employment standards. See your rights at work.

Hiring a caregiver from abroad

To hire a foreign caregiver for your home, you usually need a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), then the caregiver applies for a work permit. The job must be full-time (at least 30 hours a week) in your household, live-in or live-out.

• Fee: C$1,000 per position. It’s waived for families earning under C$150,000 who need child care for children under 13, and for care for someone with a physical or mental condition. You can’t recover the fee from the worker
• Permanent residence: the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots opened on 31 March 2025 and their 2,750 places filled within hours. They take no new applications between 31 March 2026 and 30 March 2027
• Rules here change often. Use a regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC) or lawyer

If you hire someone who is already in Canada on a permit, ask to see it and check its conditions before they start. See visas and permits.

Cleaners and contractors

Most cleaners work for themselves or a cleaning company. If they decide how to do the job, bring their own equipment and serve other clients, they’re generally self-employed and you don’t run payroll. If you set the hours, supervise the work and supply everything, the CRA may see them as your employee, whatever you call it. Ask a cleaning firm about insurance, and agree the price in writing.

Tax relief

Pay to a nanny or babysitter can count for the child care expenses deduction if it lets you work. Ask your nanny for receipts, and keep your payroll records. See childcare and holiday care.