Tim Hattwick Partner & Senior Investigator, Fire Technology Consultants LLC

• Director at Forletta Consulting and Investigation Services, LLC
• Litigation support, Speaker bureau, Instructor at international government agencies
• Litigation support, Speaker bureau, Instructor at international government agencies

In many cases the law construes a person as being a deemed “employee” which has certain consequences for such individuals e.g. in the areas of workers compensation and taxation.

A business can be liable for the business's sub-contractor's liability for payroll tax, wages, unemployment and workers compensation insurance premiums of the contractor unless the business complies with the subcontractor rules.

A company’s  industrial relations, payroll tax and workers compensation insurance laws potentially expose businesses that retain contractors to the contractor's payroll tax, wages and workers compensation insurance liabilities.

Each of the laws that regulate the obligation to pay wages, payroll tax and workers compensation insurance make a business liable for their contractors wages, payroll tax and workers compensation insurance liabilities in respect only of the work done under the contract if:

So how do you distinguish between an employee or contractor
A contractor is more likely to:
Carry on an independent business in his or her own name or under a business name.
Employ others, delegate or subcontract work to others.
 
When is a contractor deemed to be an employee:
The contractor does not employ workers.
The contractor does not subcontract part or all of the contracted work.
The worker is not part of a business or trade regularly carried out by the contractor in his/her own name or under a business.
Work exclusively for a single employer.

For more information, refer to the IRS publication link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-regs/subcontractorstext.prn.pdf

Simple solution: 
Contract with established vendors that:
	* have their own business license as an LLC or higher
	* have a trade license
	* have their own Workers Comp policy
	* have liability insurance of $1M or more.