Re: Round #4263 with the Client From Hell

[Char James-Tanny <CharJT -at- helpstuff -dot- com>]

> That said, if/when the day comes that I do full-time
> contracting, I intend to bend over backwards to avoid
> accepting fixed-price work. On that, I certainly agree
> with Andrew.

Before you bend too far ;-), make sure that you're aware of the IRS Common Law
Rule and Twenty Factors. It's available in many places, but one is
http://www.wellesley.edu/Controller/forms/consultant.pdf.

Basically, the IRS got perturbed several years ago when companies were laying off
employees and then re-hiring them as consultants, but still treating them like
employees. So they set up these guidelines.

Number 6 states that "Payment by the hour, week, or month usually indicates an
employer-employee relationship."

Therefore, as a consultant who doesn't want to get pinged by the IRS, I do a
number of flat-fee jobs during the year.

Char
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Char James-Tanny (mailto:CharJT -at- helpstuff -dot- com)
JTF Associates, Inc. (http://www.helpstuff.com)

Consulting and Development for WinHelp, HTML Help, and Web-based Help
Adjunct Faculty, Bentley College
RoboHelp Advisory Board and RoboHelp Certified Instructor
Web Site Design (http://design.helpstuff.com)
Web Hosting (http://hosting.helpstuff.com)




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sponsored by eHelp Corporation, makers of RoboHelp - the industry standard
in Help authoring. Download a trial version today or get special savings when 
you buy the RoboHelp 2002 Holiday Edition. Visit http://www.ehelp.com/techwr

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.