Are local governments shutting down home based Independent Contractor positions?
Government entities (state and Federal) have a vested interest in making sure as many people as possible are classified as “employees”. That makes sure
1) Withholding taxes are collected for state and federal income taxes “off the top” from the employer.
2) Social Security and Medicare taxes are collected “off the top” from the employer.
3) State unemployment trust funds collect money from a larger base of employees.
Having said that, this comment makes sense.
We already know that Amazon.com and Zappos.com don’t allow residents from Rhode Island and North Carolina to participate in their affiliate programs because of these states’ attempts to line their pockets.
It was unsolicited and attempts to contact the sender were not successful. But if this is correct, you can tell why…
So take this for what it’s worth. It may be true.
Mark wrote:
Because of changing state laws and changing enforcement by state and federal agencies against Independent Contractors, Liveops isn’t a good bet for now. Liveops classifies agents as Independent Contractors which is getting harder to do as the state and federal government are going after IC’s to get the extra tax revenue.
Liveops canceled all contracts in New Hampshire without warning in December of 2009. This will be happening more and more as different states change their laws or increase enforcement against wrongly classified Independent Contractors.
Liveops is also changing many internal policies in an attempt to continue saying agents are IC’s. Being able to say we are IC’s vs employees is a big money saver for LO. Many agents are getting let go without any clear reason becasue LO is afraid to control the work that we do or tell us what the criteria is for keeping our jobs. Generally, to be considered an IC by the IRS, the bossman can’t exert control over the worker or tell the worker how to do the job. The bossman can only measure the result of the completed job.
This is making the working conditions very poor and agents don’t know when suddenly they’ll get an email saying they’ve been let go! Don’t count on LO for regular income.
CeCestorm on March 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I think in the way of the government there will always be some form of government that will keep their hands in the pot to keep control. This avenue could really help many people stablelize the economy if they would just butt out. When the government finally realize this will help in the long run….the emails just might stop going out.