Independent Contractor vs Employee: Whats the Difference?

Businesses also pay employer-paid payroll taxes, such as federal unemployment taxes (FUTA), state unemployment taxes (SUTA), and the employer portion of FICA taxes. Your business also isn’t required to make payments for Social Security and Medicare for independent contractors. The independent contractor must pay these Social Security/Medicare taxes as self-employment taxes on the payments they receive. If someone is working for your business as an independent contractor, ​you don’t withhold federal or state income taxes and FICA taxes from the amounts you pay them unless they are subject to backup withholding. Employees are paid as salaried or hourly, on commission, or a combination, and may be subject to overtime.

• For example, misclassification of independent contractors can leave you open to an employee misclassification lawsuit.
• Generally, you must withhold and deposit income taxes, social security taxes and Medicare taxes from the wages paid to an employee.
• Independent contractors are less likely to be required to work from their clients’ offices — unless the work needs to be done there — and might not be tethered to working at specific hours of the day.
• The IRS presumes that a worker is an employee unless proven otherwise.
• Employees (sometimes called common law employees) are individuals who works for an employer that controls the work of the employee – what will be done and how it will be done.

If you want to find out whether to classify a worker as an independent contractor or employee, you can file a  Form SS-8 to request a determination from the IRS. The IRS doesn’t issue determinations on hypothetical situations, but only for in order to resolve federal tax matters. The distinction between employees and independent contractors is important. The status of someone who works in your business makes a difference in how you pay them and in how they pay taxes. However, it’s equally important to determine what the employment relationship will be like, how often they will work for you, how much control you will have, and what their working hours will be.

Tax Obligations

It’s also important to keep accurate records of all your expenses and business mileage. Making estimated quarterly tax payments helps ease the burden of a having to pay a more massive tax bill in full when you file your taxes yearly. How much an independent contractor will owe depends on their expected adjusted gross income, taxable income, taxes, deductions, and credits for the year. Since those figures aren’t always readily available, you can use Form 1040-ES to help estimate your payments.

• While an “independent contractor” is different from a standard employee, the exact definition of your role is not set in stone.
• Businesses hire employees to perform services for either hourly or salaried compensation.
• Just to confuse things, there is another possible status for workers, called a statutory employee (or non-employee).
• With Practical Law, you are only minutes away from finding up-to-date and useful answers, forms, practice notes, and checklists about all the company’s employment law questions.
• Employers entice top talent with company-provided perks, such as paid vacation and retirement contribution plans.
• This program offers partial relief from federal employment taxes for eligible businesses who agree to prospectively treat their workers as employees.
• Working with independent contractors exempts businesses from paying unemployment tax on wages.

The Department is applying the law in accordance with the district court’s decision.On October 13, 2022, the U.S. The NPRM proposes to rescind the 2021 IC rule and replace it with an analysis for determining employee or independent contractor status that is more consistent with the FLSA as interpreted by longstanding judicial precedent. Self-employed individuals generally are required to file an annual tax return and pay estimated tax quarterly. They generally must pay self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare tax) as well as income tax.

Payroll, compensation, pension & benefits

The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. Just to confuse things, there is another possible status for workers, called a statutory employee (or non-employee). Self-employed individuals, including those who earn money from gig economy work, are generally required to file an tax return and make estimated quarterly tax payments.

If a person gains a large portion of their salary from that business, chances are that person qualifies as an employee. The employer’s right to discharge a worker is a factor indicating that the worker is an employee. An employee must comply with instructions about when, where and how to work. The control factor https://www.bookstime.com/ is present if the employer has the right to require compliance with the instructions. An employee in this context is not someone who has a business of their own but is dependent on the business they serve. The text of the employee-employer relationship under the FLSA is what the DOL calls “economic reality.”

State Tests for Independent Contractor Status

They also generally must pay self-employment tax which is social security and Medicare tax as well as income tax. These taxpayers may qualify for the home office deduction if they use part of a home for business. The current basic FUTA rate is 6% of each employee’s first $7,000 of earnings. The Department of Labor independent contractor vs employee (DOL) uses a different classification system to determine worker status for purposes of wage and hour laws, including minimum wages, overtime, and child labor laws. Last, employees who lose their job due to no fault of their own can receive unemployment benefits, which compensates them while they seek new work.

• If a worker performs services for a multiple of unrelated firms at the same time, the worker may be an independent contractor.
• Independent contractors usually aren’t eligible for unemployment compensation, yet they also don’t pay federal or state unemployment taxes.
• They’re usually required to work within set hours, and their employer can dictate how and where they execute their duties.
• When you interfere with the financial side of an independent contractor’s business, you’re crossing the independent contractor-employee line.
• An employer’s tax liability is determined by the worker’s employment status.

What these numbers show is that employers are legally mandated to share half of their employees’ Social Security and Medicare contributions. The only way to be exempt from this is by working with independent contractors. A sometimes difficult status to define, what makes an independent contractor has been outlined by common law principles, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and finally the decisions of some courts. The IRS had in the past used a 20-factor test to determine whether a worker was an employee or a contractor.

Independent contractors usually aren’t eligible for unemployment compensation, yet they also don’t pay federal or state unemployment taxes. When it comes to employees, businesses have more tax responsibilities. Employers must withhold a portion of employees’ paychecks to cover FICA taxes, state income tax withholding, and federal income tax withholding. Employees must submit a Form W-4 to tell their employer how much to withhold for federal income taxes. Independent contractors, also called contract employees, must pay all taxes on their own. In addition to state and federal income taxes, they pay self-employment taxes equal to the employee and employer portions of FICA taxes.