Re: New TECHWR-L Poll Question - Contracting

Subject: Re: New TECHWR-L Poll Question - Contracting
From: "John Fleming" <johntwrl -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 16:14:45 +0000



Subject: Re: New TECHWR-L Poll Question - Contracting
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:55:50 -0800

If you are a 1099 contractor, it is essential to the needs of the client that you spend a significant amount of your contract working off-site.
If you end up keeping their office hours, sitting at their desks, using
their equipment and systems on a regular basis, you risk subjecting
both yourself and your client to challenges to your status as an independent contractor. On several occaisions, I have had to educate individuals at a client company (or have the company's
own HR, Legal or Purchasing folks educate them) on the potential
consequences to their company should that occur.

NMo argument there.

Like the IRS, the Canada Revenue Agency has guidelines for determining whether an employer/employee relationship or a contractor/client relationship exists.

If you work at the company site, keep regular office hours, use company equipment, and have them as your sole source of income, then an employer/employee relationship clearly exists regardless of what your contract says.

If you work primarily off site, set your own hours, provide your own equipment, and are doing work for a number of clients at the same time, then clearly a contractor/client relationship exists.

Fortunately, not all the crieteria have to be met for a contactor/client relationship to exists to the satisfication of our tax people.

For example, you could work on site for a client for a three or four month project, keeping their office hours and using their equipment, and still have a contractor/client relationship. The key, in this case, is the short length of the project.

If there is some question about whether a situation is a contract/client relationship or an employer/employee relationship, the best people to ask are the ones with the tax department--CRA here in Canada or IRS in the US.

As Gene points out, setting it up wrong can have significant negative consequences for both us as writers and the companies for which we do work.

--
John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, AB



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