Identifying Employees vs. Independent Contractors

Course details

This course will serve as a sound basis to assist human resources, payroll or finance professionals in determining how to properly classify a worker as an independent contractor or an employee.

To start, we will examine the requirements needed to determine if a worker is an independent contractor or an employee under various federal and state regulations, and will cover:

• Basic characteristics of both types of workers.
• The IRS' three categories to determine whether a worker can be classified as an independent contractor under the IRS rules.
• Requirements for each type of worker under the wage and hour rules.
• The IRS form that can be used to help determine the worker's status.

We will also review examples of scenarios that can trigger an independent contractor audit and the penalties that can be assessed if the worker is determined to be misclassified. To complete the course we will discuss various examples of state regulations as they pertain to worker classification. You will come away from this course with a solid understanding of the requirements for classifying workers as employees vs. independent contractors.