Independent Contractor Or Employee - New Rules

While Independent Contractors may be a necessary and strategic component to your business, the IRS, Workers Compensation, and state agencies are concerned with whether or not a worker has been misclassified – and thus feel that they are not getting their share of taxes – and have stepped up the number of audits that are aimed specifically at worker classification.

A “re-classification” of the your Independent Contractors to employees can result in assessments against your organization for back taxes, substantial penalties, and interest. To prevent substantial fines and penalties you need to know the rules regarding what makes a worker an Independent Contractor versus an employee, and that is where this training session can help.

Your trainer is Mark Schwartz, a former payroll tax auditor. Mark will provide examples from his auditing and hearing experience, including the twenty factors used to determine if an employment relationship exists. He’ll also help you analyze language used in contracts with Independent Contractors to see if such language can be used against you in an audit.

You will leave the webinar understanding how to defend your position on your workers so the auditors will have a difficult time substantiating re-classification of your Independent Contractors to employees.

Learning Objectives

During this training session, you will learn how to properly indentify, use, and pay Independent Contractors to prevent costly worker-classification audits. Specifically, you and/or your team will learn:

• The twenty factors used to determine if an employment relationship exists
• What the IRS and states consider a bona fide independent contractor
• How to use contracts to solidify your relationship – and how they can both help and hurt
• How to set up a screening system that can be used by your hiring managers and human resource personnel to insure that they are following the IRS rules
• What the auditing agencies are focusing on
• How to determine the scope and potential areas of focus for your audit
• How to identify any areas of concern prior to an external audit or an audit by another group within your company
• Common areas where mistakes or issues can normally be found
• How a review can help you detect internal control issues
• Where to go to for assistance so you're not re-creating the wheel
• Devising a game plan on what you want to review and how to divide and conquer

About Your Speaker

Mark Schwartz has over 15 years experience in state and federal payroll tax audits, collections, and payroll consulting.

As an auditor, Mark prided himself on his ability to educate his auditees on state and federal payroll tax requirements. Whatever issues he found in audits, he ensured the auditee knew how to comply in the future. He worked to minimize company disruptions in the audit process.

In addition to his real-life experiences, Mark has a Masters in Business Administration, and currently uses his entertaining and helpful personality to help organizations prepare for payroll tax audits - whether they've already got the notice or are still hoping they don't!

HRCI Credits

This program has been approved for 1.5 re-certification credit hours for HRCI's PHR and SPHR designations through the HR Certification Institute. For more information about certification or re-certification, please visit the HR Certification Institute website at www.hrci.org. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by HRCI of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met HRCIs criteria to be pre-approved for re-certification credit.

SHRM Professional Development Credits

This program is valid for 1.5 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP designations. For more information about certification or re-certification, please visit www.shrmcertification.org.