{"id":404,"date":"2015-11-05T18:23:30","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T18:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amerilawyer-blog.local\/?p=404"},"modified":"2025-05-27T16:42:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T20:42:30","slug":"misclassifying-workers-can-lead-to-costly-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amerilawyer.com\/blog\/business\/misclassifying-workers-can-lead-to-costly-penalties","title":{"rendered":"Misclassifying Workers Can Lead to Costly Penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Avoiding payroll taxes by intentionally or unintentionally misclassifying employees as <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"http:\/\/amerilawyer-blog.local\/business\/employee-v-independent-contractor-whats-the-difference-and-why-does-it-matter\/\" target=\"_blank\">independent contractors<\/a><\/span> is a costly mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Most often the misclassification will be discovered during an audit or if a former worker files a complaint. Under &#8220;the twenty factor test&#8221; in Revenue Ruling 87-41, an employee is anyone who performs services for an employer if the employer can control what will be done and how it will be done. However, in an independent contractor relationship the employer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work done, and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result.<\/p>\n<p>How to properly create an independent contractor relationship?<\/p>\n<p>Foremost, you must have an independent contractor agreement in place. This will help define the responsibilities of the indepependent contractor to follow proper standards under the law. Next, the independent contractor should set up his own corporation or LLC. Then the independent contractor relationship is between two entities. This helps the employer prove he is not controlling methods to accomplish the result. To help understand how to create an independent contractor relationship, speak to one of our specialists at (800) 603 &#8211; 3900 or visit our <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"http:\/\/amerilawyer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a><\/span> today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,72,6,49,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-entrepreneur","category-legal-services","category-llc","category-taxes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Misclassifying Workers Can Lead to Costly Penalties<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Avoiding payroll taxes by intentionally or unintentionally misclassifying employees as independent contractors is a costly mistake\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amerilawyer.com\/blog\/business\/misclassifying-workers-can-lead-to-costly-penalties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misclassifying Workers Can Lead to Costly Penalties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Avoiding payroll taxes by intentionally or unintentionally misclassifying employees as independent contractors is a costly mistake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.amerilawyer.com\/blog\/business\/misclassifying-workers-can-lead-to-costly-penalties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Amerilawyer - Incorporate, Trademark &amp; 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