Many companies that fail a worker classification audit are caught off-guard – no surprise there.  However, many organizations that fail an audit thought they had an independent contractor compliance program in place.  These companies would only work with incorporated ICs – no 1099 is filed, and they weren’t working with an individual, right? Wrong.  The [...]

Does your company make independent contractor classification decisions based on the right criteria? Many organizations forget that it isn’t what you call your ICs, but how you treat them.  Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that symphony musicians in three different states were improperly classified as independent contractors.  While, in general, [...]

As the IRS closes the multi-billion dollar “tax gap”, the difference between taxes owed and taxes actually paid to the IRS, the number of audits have skyrocketed. The misclassification of illegal immigrants as independent contractors contributes significantly to that gap.  According to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington D.C., more than $12 billion dollars in [...]

When it comes to classifying insurance agents, the state of California can’t seem to make up its mind.  On the one hand, state agencies such as the EDD have aggressively audited insurance companies over the past few years and found some insurance agents to be employees. However, a California appeals court recently ruled that an [...]

If monetary penalties and bad PR were not enough of a deterrent for independent contractor misclassification, Massachusetts has upped the ante with a two-year jail sentence. On Monday, a Massachusetts judge forced a roofing company to pay extensive back wages, fines and penalties.  As for the owners? One received two years in jail, five years [...]

The amount of unpaid taxes owed to the U.S. government has grown drastically over five short years, according to data released by the IRS on Friday. The tax gap for 2006 alone reached $450B, up from $345B for 2001 and far higher than many previous estimates. The bigger problem is the cause of that gap.  [...]

Many organizations focus on “1099 compliance” – that is, ensuring that they are compliant with the United States Internal Revenue Service rules. That is no longer enough. Independent contractor compliance has become a growing global concern. Australia is the latest of many countries (including Canada, U.K. and U.S.) to formally increase enforcement of worker classification [...]

We’re always talking about the importance of proper worker classification – making sure that your independent contractors are, in fact, independent contractors. Why? The cost of misclassification can damage your business, drastically. Several new laws that took effect on January 1 have raised those costs further. Some of those costs are obvious: in California, S.B. [...]

Believing that “Nothing Else Matters When You’re Hungry,” Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo provides more than 240,000 meals every month to those in our community who may not eat otherwise.  ICon has chosen to support this worthy cause each of the last 10 years with a donation of food during [...]

On October 14, a group of 17 “agency operators” for jointly-owned Avis Rent a Car and Budget Rent a Car filed a class action lawsuit in California alleging that the rental car agencies misclassified them as independent contractors (ICs) instead of employees.  Although the agency operators acknowledge that they each signed “Agency Operator Agreements” that classified them [...]