Massachusetts Employment Law Blog

In Accounting Today’s article “Properly Classifying Workers Remains a Major Problem“, employment attorney Scott Connolly comments on how worker misclassification is a prevalent issues for both the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing officials. Companies that misclassify employees as independent contractors avoid paying minimum wage, payroll taxes, overtime, worker’s compensation, and other payments under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act.  However, this mislabeling can lead to trouble with the IRS, including the company owing taxes it failed to withhold by classifying a worker as an independent contractor instead of as an employee.

Additionally, as Scott notes:

The employer should be concerned about misclassification claims from the workers themselves… Many service providers want to be classified as independent contractors, but companies run the risk because later there might be disharmony in the relationship.”

Read the full article for more information on the potential consequences of misclassifying workers, or contact Scott Connolly for more information.