If anyone on the list is in a similar situation, we should talk. This area is fraught with serious potential liability. Remember that you can’t simply designate someone as a “contractor,” even if they agree to do it. There are some detailed tests that both the IRS and Department of Labor use, and neither agency cares what you and your contractor agreed to do. Of course, if things ever go sour with your contractor, they can come back and make wage claims against you, too.
The DOL estimates that approximately 80% of “independent contractors” are really misclassified employees. Misclassifying employees as contractors opens you up to substantial liability for unpaid taxes, overtime, attorney’s fees and more. If you are a WISP and you have contractors and you have NOT yet gotten a written opinion from an experienced wage and hour/employment attorney, you need to get one. It’s not worth risking your business over. Doug Douglas A. Hass Associate 312.786.6502 d...@franczek.com Franczek Radelet P.C. Celebrating 20 Years | 1994-2014 300 South Wacker Drive Suite 3400 Chicago, IL 60606 312.986.0300 - Main 312.986.9192 - Fax www.franczek.com<http://www.franczek.com/> Franczek Radelet is committed to sustainability - please consider the environment before printing this email ________________________________ Circular 230 Disclosure: Under requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that, unless specifically stated otherwise, any federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purposes of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter herein. ________________________________ For more information about Franczek Radelet P.C., please visit franczek.com. The information contained in this e-mail message or any attachment may be confidential and/or privileged, and is intended only for the use of the named recipient. If you are not the named recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message or any attachment thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete all copies. ________________________________ From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of heith petersen Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2014 12:39 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] remote employee So, we finally got our former local tech set up at his office at his new home 3 hours away. He has tunnel access into our net, access to billing and his VoIP phone tied to our switch to make and receive calls on our local lines, just like he did when he sat 10 feet from me. So next is to fine tune things. We dumped him as a regular employee and moved to contract labor with no benefits, basically bumped him to a level where his pay per hour covered what he received via benefits, like insurance and vacation. Makes it easier for the accountant as she just cuts a check and doesn’t have to deduct taxes, however it now becomes his responsibility to claim wages and pay the taxes. What we are working on now is management. My boss wants him to log everything he does and pay from there, but to me that seems to be a lot of work. We have a web based time clock, but I already have issues with techs forgetting to clock in or clock out, I cant imagine it would be better having a guy clock out after every single support call. Our phone system can log time on the phone and where the calls went to, but of course a guy can be busy updating firmware and re-configuring equipment without being on the phone. The guy really only wants to clock 4 hours a day, but I need him available off an on during the day. He is unique and he could sit at home all day. I would almost just pay him 4 hours flat a day to sit and have him there and available, but the bosses want to pay him for only what he works, which I think puts more load on us deciphering logs to see what he actually worked. Anyways kind of a first for us, and maybe a last. Just wondering what others, if any, have done. I don’t want to lose the guy because he takes care of a lot of stuff when I am gone and I don’t have to train him. thanks heith
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