independant contractor vs. employee

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

I would be shopping for a lawyer right about now - you have a 'paper trail' on this, and I would say have pretty good grounds for not only compensation, but possible legal action.

In a semi related matter, I work volleyball in addition to softball, and I recently received a letter from a school district in an area we cover, but that I do not work at, stating that from here on in, we might possibly be subject to verification,under the various immigration statutes, of our citizenship for working purposes. (i.e. the filling out of an I-9 Form!) I have not questioned this with any of our group's people, but I am pretty sure that should NOT apply to us as 'independent contractors', either. Here in New York, we are assigned by a school co-op known as BOCES, and we are told again and again, that it is BOCES that controls our eligibility to be assigned and work games, NOT the districts.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Sue the living crap out of the school. Serves them right!

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

Sue the living crap out of the school. Serves them right!

Sue them for what? Nobody has refeused to pay for anything so far.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

Sue them for what? Nobody has refeused to pay for anything so far.

For forcing him against his will to be considered an employee for the purposes of umpiring a game, when he should have been considered an independent contractor. I know umpires here who work for certain schools and districts, and they are most certainly still independent contractors when they umpire.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

For forcing him against his will to be considered an employee for the purposes of umpiring a game, when he should have been considered an independent contractor. I know umpires here who work for certain schools and districts, and they are most certainly still independent contractors when they umpire.

Using that logic you could sue your association for making you wear a uniform color you didn't like.

There has to be harm. What harm has been done? Did he lose pay. Was he refused medical treatment? No harm, no foul.

[IowaMike]

I used to work for a school district at the high school building and did freshman and sophomore games for them, as well as a few games at the middle school. I did not do varsity games at the high school. The pay for those games was always put on my regular paycheck. I always felt that if I was ever injured doing one of those games, it would be considered the same as getting injured while doing my regular job for the district since I was not being paid as an independent contractor.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by iowamike

i always felt that if i was ever injured doing one of those games, it would be considered the same as getting injured while doing my regular job for the district since i was not being paid as an independent contractor.

bingo!

[d26]

Jenkins is on the money on this one.

Umpiring as an IC is is a slippery slope that has yet to be set in federal law with eight states having IC/Officiating laws, and six states having IC/Officiating "rulings":
http://www.naso.org/rprt/SpecReptIndCont.pdf
The NASO article also agrees with Jenkins and I, that someone umpiring for their employer means employee when umpiring.

A person working for a school district would be an employee/official if officiating at any school within the district.

There is no harm for the employer if they classify someone as "an employee for one item, an employee for all", and a huge risk if they try to play the employee sometimes, IC other times "game".

The following article discusses a school setting from another perspective.
Higher Markets’ Purchasing Pulse newsletter in September, 2000
http://www.rainassoc.com/employee.pdf

"Of over thirty cases in which the US Tax Court, US District Courts, the US Courts of Appeals and the US Supreme Court have issued opinions based upon Revenue Rule 87-41, there is not a single case where a taxpayer has successfully argued that a person can be an employee and a contractor concurrently for the same employer."

"And as if to add insult to injury, in some instances 26 USC 6672 gives the IRS authority to hold "responsible parties" liable for a penalty equal to 100% of the employment taxes not properly collected and paid for employees. A "responsible party" can include officers, managers and any other person who exercises a controlling decision in the process of whether or not to collect payroll taxes — and that means you and me folks. There’s no question that there is some degree of personal liability as a consequence of improperly classifying employees as independent contractors.
So here’s the denouement — if your institution is issuing an IRS Form 1099-MISC and a W-2 to the same name, you just might be announcing that you’re underpaying the tax man and you probably should prepare the welcome mat for the IRS auditors."