3 ms·

so if I pay someone to clean my house every Wednesday morning and tell them they can't use bleach, they're my employee?

culturestate 7y ago
If you're hiring them personally, no. This is only applicable when the hiring entity is a company. On the other hand, if you're wealthy and run your household via e.g. a family LLC which contracts that cleaner in a professional capacity, then - technically - yes. It's possible there's an exception for scenarios like this, but I'm not familiar with it. Disclaimer: I'm neither an accountant nor a tax attorney, but I've dealt with classification issues as both an employer and an indie consultant for years.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  I guess that's a reasonable trade-off. if I want to protect my personal assets through an LLC, I have more obligations to the worker than some random Joe.
logfromblammo 7y ago
There is a fuzzy line there, between defining what the job is and how it should be done. If you say "sand the floor", a contractor that shows up with a power sander and sands the floor is still a contractor. When Mr. Miyagi kicks away the power sander, reveals two sanding blocks, and says, "No, like this," then Daniel-san is his employee. If the job is "clean my house on Wednesday no earlier than 8 am and finished by noon, without using bleach", as long as the only thing you're managing is to check the cleanliness of the house at 12:01 on Wednesday, that's still contracting. If you are then surprised that your cleaner subcontracted with the Cat in the Hat, and a Seussian steam-engine rolls in at 11:50 and back out at 11:59, leaving everything spotless and sparkling, you'd best just keep your mouth shut and enjoy the cleanliness. Because if you concern yourself with the who and the how, instead of just the what, where, and when, you should have hired an employee. If you can't hand off the job to another equally qualified person and still get the money yourself, that's not contracting. In the metaphor, the "apiarists" should probably have some contracts for honey with queen bees, who then manage their own hives in their own way to make delivery. But then those queens would have negotiating power, and the ability to switch apiarists to get the best price for their honey.

If you're hiring them personally, no. This is only applicable when the hiring entity is a company. On the other hand, if you're wealthy and run your household via e.g. a family LLC which contracts that cleaner in a professional capacity, then - technically - yes. It's possible there's an exception for scenarios like this, but I'm not familiar with it. Disclaimer: I'm neither an accountant nor a tax attorney, but I've dealt with classification issues as both an employer and an indie consultant for years.

leetcrew 7y ago
I guess that's a reasonable trade-off. if I want to protect my personal assets through an LLC, I have more obligations to the worker than some random Joe.

logfromblammo 7y ago

There is a fuzzy line there, between defining what the job is and how it should be done. If you say "sand the floor", a contractor that shows up with a power sander and sands the floor is still a contractor. When Mr. Miyagi kicks away the power sander, reveals two sanding blocks, and says, "No, like this," then Daniel-san is his employee. If the job is "clean my house on Wednesday no earlier than 8 am and finished by noon, without using bleach", as long as the only thing you're managing is to check the cleanliness of the house at 12:01 on Wednesday, that's still contracting. If you are then surprised that your cleaner subcontracted with the Cat in the Hat, and a Seussian steam-engine rolls in at 11:50 and back out at 11:59, leaving everything spotless and sparkling, you'd best just keep your mouth shut and enjoy the cleanliness. Because if you concern yourself with the who and the how, instead of just the what, where, and when, you should have hired an employee. If you can't hand off the job to another equally qualified person and still get the money yourself, that's not contracting. In the metaphor, the "apiarists" should probably have some contracts for honey with queen bees, who then manage their own hives in their own way to make delivery. But then those queens would have negotiating power, and the ability to switch apiarists to get the best price for their honey.