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Cracking Down on Independent Contractors Federal and state regulators increasingly want to know whether companies' independent contractors are truly independent.

Sarah Johnson, CFO.com | US
March 3, 2010

The Rest of the Story

What's left out in the article is the responsibilities of the independed contractor are often ignored. They are supposed to pay both sides of FICA & MedFica - often known as Self Employment tax. Additionally they are supposed to carry their own workman's comp insurance, pay their withholding taxes, etc. In effect they are supposed to be their own stand alone company. Instead several pocket their check and avoid their responsibilities.

Instead, requiring firms to withhold federal and state taxes on 1099 employees could accomplish the same goal.

Best wishes,
Rollyn Trueblood

Posted by Rollyn Trueblood | Mar 4, 2010 6:42 PM ET

Great article and dead-on

Your article is timely and useful. In Maryland we got the Anti-Workplace Fraud Act of 2009 - a law that makes independent contractor classification more stringent and more costsly if you mis-classify. This is just one more growing trend of regulatory zeal. this year it will be unemployment law changes to fund the growing and longer unemployment needs in the USA.

Posted by Tom Hood | Mar 4, 2010 4:16 AM ET