Independent Contractor Compliance Blog

Have You Allowed a Genuine Independent Contractor to Become a Misclassified Employee?

It is very common for a company to engage qualified independent contractors (ICs) who: Are true experts Have other clients Market their services to gain new clients Work for a fixed price for a completed job Pay their own expenses Work for several clients (sometimes even competitors) at the same time However, many times these [...]

How Best to Avoid Legal Headaches

If your company is audited by a tax agency and you appeal their decision, typically the case will then be decided by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).  There are fewer strict requirements to be an ALJ than for a full-judicial judge in either a civil court or a federal court.  This is important to know [...]

Why You Must Also Document the End of the Engagement

The universally known facts of today can become the lost, arcane knowledge of tomorrow. Memories fade and change over time. The common knowledge of today becomes lost as people move on and are involved in other projects. Sometimes records are even lost.  However, legal challenges, requiring detailed recall of facts and events, can occur several [...]

Low Hanging Fruit When Tax Auditors are Searching for Misclassified Workers

I hope you don’t hold it against me, but in a previous life I was a tax auditor for the government. As a rank and file auditor I performed approximately 800 audits before becoming a supervisor, then a district administrator and on up the line…From that experience I can tell you firsthand that auditors look [...]

Myth—If There is a Written Agreement, Signed by Both Parties, Stating the Consultant is an IC, Then the Client Company is Clear of any Tax or Civil Liabilities

One of the most common misconceptions about worker classification that I encounter with clients is the belief that a written contract defining the relationship with a consultant as that of an independent contractor, responsible for his own taxes, will protect the company from misclassification challenges by either tax agencies, labor law disputes, or in civil [...]

Consultants Pushing Back on an Employee Status Determination

Whenever a consultant who doesn’t qualify for independent contractor status, is pushing back, arguing to be treated as an IC “or else,” I wonder if they have truly thought this through? First, let me begin by stating that this does not apply to the consultants who have clearly established their own business, serve multiple clients [...]

Direction and Control: One of the Most Common Mistakes Companies Make When Engaging Independent Contractors

One of the most common mistakes I see clients make is to turn a consultant, who qualifies and truly wants to be independent contractor, into an employee by controlling every part of the project. The consultant often starts out looking like an independent contractor. The client wants to engage an individual who has a unique [...]

Do I Need to File a Form 1099 MISC for Payments to an Attorney Last Year?

That was the question I was recently asked by a client facing the paper deadline of February 28th to file Form 1099 MISC, with the IRS. He had started his own business this year, and was struggling with the mountain of government laws and regulations placed on small business people. I asked, “How many Forms [...]

IRS Interest Rates Increase for the Second Quarter of 2011

WASHINGTON-The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that interest rates for the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2011 will increase by 1%. The new rates will be: 4% for overpayments (credits or refunds), 3% in the case of a corporation; 4% for underpayments (assessments and liabilities); 6% for large corporate underpayments; and 1½% for the portion [...]

Case Study of a Company Who Had Bifurcated Common Law Relationships – Part 1: The Project

I’d like to share a case study about a company that engaged a team of consultants to launch a nationwide marketing and communications effort with both its customers and internally with its own staff. The objective was to upgrade the company’s image with customers and to improve communications with its own employees. No one in [...]

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