When classifying workers, remember the ‘right to control.’

From ICon Professional Services Blog —

“Recently, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has been pushing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to improve data collection programs that are needed to identify potential misclassification of workers as independent contractors. This is part of a general trend on the part of not only federal officials, but also their state counterparts, who are working to ensure that labor laws are being followed.
What do businesses need to know about these changes? As always they must have a solid idea of who qualifies as an independent contractor, and when it is appropriate to classify a worker as such.
Often, such cases boil down to how much control a firm has over the activities of a worker. As recently established by two separate cases in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the “right to control” is a primary test for whether a worker should be classified as an independent contractor. Businesses may control the nature of an employee’s work, such as set their schedule and provide uniforms and materials, as they are paying at least minimum wage and taxes for what is presumably longer than a short time period….”

Read the full story at When classifying workers, remember the ‘right to control.’