Whether you are a direct employer, or whether you call on an intermediary organization, rules must be respected to
hire a gardener with the CESU
(Universal service employment check).
Formalities, reporting obligations, tax credit, employment contract… We answer all your questions.
To discover
True or false: fight misconceptions about the garden
What is the difference between small and large gardening jobs?
The universal service employment check (
CESU
) gardener is only possible for minor gardening work.
Indeed, we distinguish:
Small gardening jobs
This corresponds to the routine maintenance of private gardens and vegetable plots.
This service includes picking fruit and vegetables for personal consumption, trimming hedges and trees and clearing brush.
But also the removal of waste caused by the service.
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Heavy gardening work
This corresponds to the design and construction of landscaped parks, pruning and earthworks.
But also to commercial activities related to gardening such as the sale of plants or materials.
In the first case, you can hire a gardener in CESU.
In the second, you will pay for a one-off service on invoice from a specialized company or a craftsman.
How to hire a gardener with the CESU?
If you want help with your
little gardening chores
, there are three options available to you:
1- Go through a service provider to hire an employee
You can go through a
service provider
.
In this context, you do not hire a gardener directly.
The provider organization is his direct employer.
You are the customer.
Concretely, the intermediary is responsible for finding someone to carry out the maintenance of your garden.
For your part, you pay an invoice for this service to the intermediary.
Good to know
You can pay this bill with a pre-financed CESU.
It is financed, in whole or in part, by a company, a pension fund, a local authority, etc. Find out from your company, your department or an organization likely to issue you one, to find out if it or it can make you benefit from it and under what conditions.
2- Go through an authorized organization to hire a gardener
You can also go through an
agency
to hire a gardener.
In this context, you entrust the agent organization, against remuneration, with a certain number of tasks defined by an agency contract.
For example, it may be the search for candidates, recruitment, hiring formalities, calculation and establishment of payslips... But you remain the direct employer of the gardener.
As such, you remain subject to the legal obligations incumbent on all private employers.
3- Hire a gardener directly
You can directly become
an employer
.
You choose, recruit and employ the gardener.
As an individual employer, you are subject to a number of legal obligations.
Read alsoGet the services of a gardener
What are the CESU hiring formalities to be observed as a private employer?
The private employer who hires a gardener at his home for the maintenance of his exteriors must respect certain legal obligations.
Like all employers, you must declare your employee, pay him, apply the texts governing the employer-employee working relationship as well as the duration of work.
The registration of the gardener with the URSSAF: the declarative CESU
As part of the
direct hiring of a gardener
, you are subject to legal obligations to inform different services that you are going to employ someone.
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The
declarative CESU
allows you to simplify these procedures.
1. You must apply to join the CESU declaratif, directly on the URSSAF website.
You will then obtain an employer space.
2. You register your new employee online.
The following data will be requested:
his identity (usual name and birth name, first name(s), Social Security number or, failing that, his date and place of birth);
their contact details (postal address, telephone, etc.);
his work
3. You must join and contribute to an interprofessional occupational medicine service whose contact details are provided by the services of your Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labor and Solidarity (Dreets).
Good to know
If you directly employ an employee, you have the obligation to declare it.
Don't forget to do this, otherwise you risk:
Reimbursement of all costs in the event of an accident at work
To criminal and civil penalties
Drafting an employment contract between employer and gardener
The use of the declarative CESU does not exempt you from drawing up a written
employment contract
to provide a legal framework for the hiring of your employee.
It is even compulsory if your gardener regularly works more than 8 hours per week or more than 4 consecutive weeks per year.
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The employment contract must contain, at a minimum, the following mandatory information:
the identity of the two parties
date of hire
work place
the conditions of employment (hours, days and details of the tasks carried out, etc.)
the length of the trial period
compensation
the signature of both parties
The contract must be drawn up in 2 copies: one for you and one for your gardener.
Good to know
Home-based employment is subject to the Individual Employers and Home-Based Employment Sector Collective Agreement (IDCC 3239).
Your gardener's salary statement
As in any employment relationship, as an employer, you are required to
declare the remuneration paid to your gardener
.
And pay them.
With the CESU declarative, the procedure for declaring remuneration is simplified.
You declare on the dedicated platform the remuneration paid to your gardener (net hourly salary) and the number of hours worked.
This declaration must be made no later than the 5th day of the month following the period of activity.
You can also choose to do so by post, using the paper social component included in the CESU notebook.
You must then send it to URSSAF, CESU department.
Social security contributions will be calculated and then automatically deducted by URSSAF from your bank account and your employee will receive a certificate of employment equivalent to a pay slip.
Good to know
As a private employer, you benefit from an abatement on the employer's social security contribution.
It is 2 euros per hour worked on the employer's contribution to health, maternity, disability and death insurance.
How do I pay my gardener with the CESU?
To pay your gardener, several options are available to you if you are an individual employer:
1. | You can opt for a salary payment with the payment method that suits you: check or bank transfer for example. |
2. | You can pay your employee with a pre-financed CESU , also called a CESU title. It comes in the form of a check book with a determined amount. |
With the
CESU +
service and with the agreement of your employee, you can delegate the entire salary payment procedure to the URSSAF CESU service.
Two working days after the registration of the declaration of the gardener's remuneration, the CESU debits the salary from your bank account and then pays it, 4 working days after the declaration, into your employee's bank account.
Contributions remain debited at the end of the month following receipt of your debit notice.
The CESU + service also calculates and deducts your employee's withholding tax for you, if he is taxable.
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What tax credit am I entitled to if I hire a gardener?
The annual ceiling for small gardening expenses giving rise to the right to the tax credit cannot exceed
5,000 euros
.
The tax benefit takes the form of an income tax credit.
If you use a personal services organisation, the latter must send you an annual tax certificate before 31 March of year N+1, in order to allow you to benefit from the tax credit for the year N+1. N. This certificate will also serve as proof to keep in the event of a tax audit.
It is at the time of the tax return that you indicate the total amount of remuneration paid to your gardener.
Since the end of January 2022, you can benefit from a new service set up by URSSAF: the immediate tax credit advance (CESU Immediate advance).
Your tax credit can now be automatically deducted from your expenses for the use of a home-based employee.