Employee or Independent Contractor: A Determination with Far-Reaching Consequences.
探讨了如何根据普通法标准判定工人是雇员还是独立承包人，并分析了错误分类在雇佣税、养老金、福利计划和劳动法下的不同后果及潜在成本。
Abstract Managers and auditors who have fiscal responsibility for firm assets should took carefully at how workers are classified for employment tax, pension and fringe benefit plan, and labor law purposes. Worker classifications based on common law affect payroll tax and pension fund liabilities and eligibility to participate in benefit and welfare plans. However, a different set of worker classification criteria is used for federal labor laws. Furthermore, while the employment tax treatment of some misclassified workers may be protected by safe harbor relief provisions, this protection does not extend to other laws. Therefore, it is possible that a worker could be treated as an employee for one set of laws and an independent contractor for another set of laws. This article looks at the criteria used to determine if a worker is an employee or independent contractor for employment tax, benefit plan, and labor law purposes and discusses some of the potential costs of misclassification. This study also discusses the possibility that material misclassifications should be treated as contingent liabilities requiring financial statement disclosure.