Contractor vs employee - in today's SF Chron

[mzw...@aol.com]

Commenter says classifying jobs as "contracts" rampant and wrong

A recent posting about a job-hunter who took a five-month contract position while looking for a permanent position elicited a lengthy reply from a frequent visitor to this blog.

The writer says: "The scam of hiring people as contractors who should be classified as employees is in full bloom these days."

Really? I've reposted the comment below to see whether others see evidence of this misclassification or the critique is the mark. The writer goes on to say that:

This scam is primarily driven by smaller companies as large companies tend to hire from temp agencies so that they don't get their own hands dirty.

I call this practice a scam because it is illegal for a company to misclassify an employee as an independent contractor. An employer cannot arbitrarily choose to call an employee an independent contractor so that they can avoid the paperwork and responsibilities of hiring an employee (paying employment taxes, social security tax, Medicare tax, giving benefits, etc.). Additionally, there are legal protections afforded to employees that independent contractors do not enjoy.

However, when someone is desperate for a job, they will often do whatever the employer dictates just to get some income. But all is not lost.

If the company HAS misclassified you as an independent contractor instead of an employee, you can report them to both the IRS and in California, to the EDD (you might even get a reward from the IRS!). If found guilty, the company will be fined substantially, PLUS they will have to pay all the taxes that they avoided. If you paid the taxes as a contractor, then you can file for a refund on what you paid. And IF you should have been an employee, then you can file for unemployment with the California EDD and the company will owe you pay for any holidays that passed! (LOL)

Check out:

Independent contractor or employee? http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_IndependentContractor.html http://www.taxes.ca.gov/icore.bus.shtml http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html

Report employer misclassification fraud to the Calif. EDD here: https://eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov/eddcomm/frmFraudStart.htm

I appreciate the time this writer has taken to state the point and provide resources and options for people who may be affected. But there's no way to evaluate a supposition. If other commenters know of specific instances, someone is going to have to step out from behind the veil of anonymity to offer specifics.

Posted By: Tom Abate (Email) | November 09 2009 at 11:50 AM

Listed Under: Jobs

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gettowork/detail?entry_id=51287&tsp=1#ixzz0WOsP37PP

Lisa
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http://characteractress.blogspot.com/

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