Employer Question

[Hoover]

If you worked at a small business. And your boss just bought a new house, and instead of working at the office, he made you help him move. Would you be pissed or happy to be out of the office?

Please note: This is not packing or unpacking, this is just moving boxes and other stiff.

Just seeing what I can get away with...

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Simplex3

Oh, I pay all my taxes. And as far as I'm concerned I pay enough for any 10 people. We have a 1099 contract we force them to sign that goes over all the pertinent points like:

1. You aren't an employee
2. We don't give you benefits like an employee
3. We don't provide you with equipment like an employee
4. We don't pay any of your taxes like an employee
5. Did we mention you weren't an employee?
etc.

Regardless of what you "force" someone to sign, performance governs. Here are the 20 questions the IRS uses as a guideline (not definitive but very useful):

1.Must the individual take instructions from your management staff regarding when, where, and how work is to be done?
2.Does the individual receive training from your company?
3.Is the success or continuation of your business somewhat dependent on the type of service provided by the individual?
4.Must the individual personally perform the contracted services?
5.Have you hired, supervised, or paid individuals to assist the worker in completing the project stated in the contract?
6.Is there a continuing relationship between your company and the individual?
7.Must the individual work set hours?
8.Is the individual required to work full time at your company?
9.Is the work performed on company premises?
10.Is the individual required to follow a set sequence or routine in the performance of his work?
11.Must the individual give you reports regarding his/her work?
12.Is the individual paid by the hour, week, or month?
13.Do you reimburse the individual for business/travel expenses?
14.Do you supply the individual with needed tools or materials?
15.Have you made a significant investment in facilities used by the individual to perform services?
16.Is the individual free from suffering a loss or realizing a profit based on his work?
17.Does the individual only perform services for your company?
18.Does the individual limit the availability of his services to the general public?
19.Do you have the right to discharge the individual?
20.May the individual terminate his services at any time?

In general "no" answers to questions 1-16 and "yes" answers to questions 17-20 indicate an independent contractor. However, a simple majority of "no" answers to questions 1 to 16 and "yes" answers to questions 17 to 20 does not guarantee independent contractor treatment. Some questions are either irrelevant or of less importance because the answers may apply equally to employees and independent contractors.

http://www.topechelon.com/employers/...sification.htm

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Simplex3

Oh, I pay all my taxes. And as far as I'm concerned I pay enough for any 10 people. We have a 1099 contract we force them to sign that goes over all the pertinent points like:

1. You aren't an employee
2. We don't give you benefits like an employee
3. We don't provide you with equipment like an employee
4. We don't pay any of your taxes like an employee
5. Did we mention you weren't an employee?
etc.

You know your business better than I do, so I won't argue. I do know, though, that there are specific rules about whether you can make someone a contractor versus having to hire them as an employee and depending on the job description sometimes you can't just say "you're a contractor".

The bummer is that if the IRS disagrees with your judgment, you owe the employer portion of the Social Security taxes on all of the "contractor" wages that should've been "employee" wages. That can get ugly.

Again, though, more power to you if you've got work that you can contract out.

I'm a little sensitive about it because in my industry there are some firms that do the contracting thing, but in their proposals they act like everybody's an employee, which is far more desirable from a client viewpoint. I feel like they're cheating both the IRS and their clients in that case, while I play by the rules.

Slightly off topic, but I had lunch a while back with an individual (one-person business) who wanted to see if we could team on things (read: wanted me to send him some work). The guy pulled out a business card and gave it to me, and then gave me a second business card with a different company. He started proudly talking about how he and several other one-person consulting firms got together and printed up business cards for a "virtual" company so that they could lie to potential clients and act like they're a bigger firm whenever they thought it was advantageous to do so. Sorry, you freaking fraud, but you're never going to be on my project team.

Edit: looks like vailpass beat me to the punch about the contracting thing.