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I am needing to hire someone to live in the same house as my mother with Dementia. My mother rents from us and pays her own utilities, food etc .Do I include meals for the caretaker? Does my mom pay for her electricity? (not that it will be much)The Caretaker will have 2 days a week off. How much is enough to pay her on top of her NOT paying rent or ???I want to be fair. I saw an ad that paid $2800. a month. That's 33,600. a year. I do have someone in mind. If she is not yet 76 yrs old (caretaker) she can only make 25K, or her SS benefits will be taken away. Should I ask her that? I could pay her some in cash too I suppose, but that won't be able to be written off my mothers taxes without hurting the other woman. Please advise. Thank you, Kathleen

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California’s minimum wage is $16.50, which would be $2,860 a month for 5 eight hour days, plus the employer’s portion of payroll taxes, etc.

Room and board offered for the convenience of the employer aren’t usually counted as part of compensation unless the employee has full tenant’s rights (notice of end of tenancy, eviction process, abilility to have guests, quiet enjoyment of their space, etc.).

It sounds like you have someone willing to commit to living on the premises in the expectation that the hours spent actively working will be 8 hours or less. Hopefully that will work out well for both of you. However, if you track every detail on expenses, she may track every detail on hours.
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Reply to Frebrowser
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Her social security will not be taken away. She will pay taxes on her social security if she earns to much.

So, you can get with a tax advisor and find out what she would need to make to cover her taxes or you could have mom pay some of her bills (caregivers) directly, ie mom pays cell phone. You DO NOT make the room and board part of the payment, this is an added benefit if she needs a place to live that can be an enticement for her and not affect her taxes or SS.

When you hire a live in, you cover all the housing expenses, you offer food and in this situation maybe a food budget, so anything extra would be provided by mom as opposed to the caregiver buying her own special foods.

There are creative ways to make this work. You just want to be sure that you consult with a good tax pro, I like a tax attorney personally, they are whizz at finding the legal loop holes.
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Reply to Isthisrealyreal
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