[nabentre] Contractors Versus Employees?

[Anita Ogletree]

Yes, that is true. It becomes discouraging when the information seems to be
deeply embedded on the site and you could end up scrolling past what you're
looking for. I certainly have done that many times. But thank you for your
help.


On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 12:25 PM Everett Gavel via nabentre <
nabentre at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Thanks Kane, and Brandon as well, for such
> detailed responses to Anita's question. I
> appreciate that. Sometimes it's nicer than having
> to go out to websites to find the details and read
> through tons of stuff that isn't even exactly what
> you're searching for.
>
> Strive On!
> Everett
>
>
> ----- original message -----
> Going back to the prior thread that touched on
> this question:
> I agree with Colleen--that Brandon's treatment of
> life as an employee
> vs. life as a contractor was clear and for the
> most part accurate.  As
> someone who has worked both as an employee and as
> a contractor, and
> who does financial planning professionally, I wish
> to clarify one
> point and to make a couple of others.
>
> (1)  As an employee, you work for someone else in
> exchange for a
> documented wage or salary.  Regardless of whether
> you are an exempt
> [salary-earning] employee or a non-exempt [hourly
> wage-earning]
> employee, you receive at the end of the year a
> Form W-2 Wage and Tax
> Statement, a model for which is available for
> download on the IRS'
> Website.  An employer withholds federal taxes in
> accordance with what
> you have filled out on an IRS Form W-4, and the
> employer also deducts
> from your wages, among other things, a portion of
> your pay that is set
> aside for payment of one-half of what is owed on
> your behalf to the
> Social Security and Medicare systems.  As a
> contractor, on the other
> hand, you receive at the end of the year a Form
> 1099-MISC.  You as the
> self-employed owner of your services must go
> through a more
> complicated scenario to figure out how much tax
> you owe, and you also
> are responsible for paying more into Social
> Security and Medicare than
> you would have as an employee of somebody else,
> because when you are a
> contractor you must pay into these federal
> entitlement systems from
> both the employer side and the employee side.  If
> you are a
> contractor, if you're thinking of becoming one,
> it's a good idea to
> familiarize yourself with these self-employment
> tax rules, which you
> can do by reading
>
> https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employment-Tax-Social-Security-and-Medicare-Taxes
> .
> I have found overall that the IRS' and the Social
> Security
> Administration's Websites are very accessible to a
> blind reder.
>
> (2)  The biggest economic difference these days
> between a full-time
> employee and a contractor often comes down to
> health insurance: where
> it comes from, who is responsible for paying for
> it, and how much you
> as an employee or contractor is responsible for
> paying on this
> benefit.  In the United States, the trend for many
> companies is to cut
> down sharply on their number of employees and to
> get services
> performed more and more frequently by
> self-employed contractors.  In
> this way, they pass along the full responsibility
> and cost for health
> insurance coverage--or for paying the penalty if
> you don't have any
> health coverage--onto the worker.  This is a whole
> different topic of
> discussion which I don't want to get into on this
> thread; but it is
> extremely important for any of us who have
> families.  And it's not
> just an either/or proposition.  Sometimes,
> employers do not pick up
> health insurance for employees; other times it is
> worthwhile even if
> you are an employee to look for your own
> individual coverage and to
> reject participation in a group plan that the
> employer offers.  At any
> rate, it's important to go to someone who knows
> what he or she is
> doing in this area for advice.
>
> (3)  Finally, if you are someone's employee, you
> have some civil
> rights protections guaranteed by the Americans
> with Disabilities Act.
> If you are a contractor who hires others, and if
> you earn a certain
> amount of your business from selling products or
> services to the U.S.
> federal government, then those whom you hire have
> some ADA protection
> as well.
> http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/disability/employeerights.htm
> But if you work as an independent contractor for
> somebody else--say,
> as the seller of nutraceuticals on behalf of an
> MLM or even as the
> independent representative of a broker/dealer in
> the securities
> business, as I do--you have almost no protection
> under the Americans
> with Disabilities Act.  This is because the world
> looks at you as
> being a self-employed person who can choose who
> you want to represent,
> or who can choose not to represent anybody at all.
> I am not an
> attorney, but from what I have read our protection
> as
> contractors--such as we have any--comes from
> certain provisions of the
> Rehabilitation Act of 1973, particularly Section
> 504.  I'm sure a duly
> licensed attorney who follows this list can
> clarify my own
> understanding of this; but when making a choice
> about how you want to
> interact with another company as you create a job
> or career for
> yourself, it's worth taking these things into
> close consideration
> first.
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Kane Brolin
>
>
>
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