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The specifics of this discussion point up the incredible value of having a CPA review one's accounting records as well as file taxes.
When dealing with labor and HR regulation, the easiest thing to remember is that the regulators (most specifically the U.S. Dept. of Labor) assume one is an employee unless it can be proved that they are not. The good news, to the extent there is good news, is that once a determination that an employee-employer relationship, it's generally the employer that is in trouble, not the employee. The bad news, in my experience, is that it's sometimes impossible to explain this to client representatives who effectively seek to control *how* a project is performed.
The US DOL's vaunted 20-point test of independent contractor status has come in and out of favor a few times in my almost 30 years as a consultant working in a general partnership. Regardless, I still use it as a guide when considering any nonstandard client relationship.
Michael L. Wyland
Sumption & Wyland
818 South Hawthorne Avenue
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104-4537
(605) 336-0244
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800
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