I've been working so many hours at work that I can't sustain the pace without some substantial child-care help around the house. There's no sign that it's going to let up any time soon.
If I ask my employer to hire someone to help with our child-care, on their payroll and with them responsible for all the taxes and paperwork, would I have to treat the nanny's salary as taxable income on my taxes?
On the one hand, I can see the argument that my employer would be providing a benefit specifically to me, with clear financial value.
On the other hand, the only reason I'm even thinking about this is because I literally can't continue to do the job that my employer wants me to do without having child-care help, so if my employer wants me to continue working at the pace they've come to expect and rely on, then it's directly to their benefit to provide child-care for me.
This seems sort of analogous to the fact that because I'm expected to be on-call and reachable nearly all the time, and to be able to work from home whenever necessary including in the middle of the night (which happens all too often), my employer pays for both my home internet connection and my cell phone.
Thanks for any insight you can provide.