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> the simplest way is to treat someone as a 1099 independent contractor This is not so simple. Genuinely treating someone as an IC means giving up a lot of con

> the simplest way is to treat someone as a 1099 independent contractor This is not so simple. Genuinely treating someone as an IC means giving up a lot of control. As the IRS says: You are not an independent contractor if you perform services that can be controlled by an employer (what will be done and how it will be done). And merely calling someone an IC while actually controlling their work hours, projects, etc risks legal consequences.

igetspam 3y ago
When everyone is a contractor, you actually have to treat them they way too. That means there are benefits and supportive actions you cannot take or they become an employee by the implication. Then you may have to setup a local business, convert them to full time and deal with the local gov. It sounds much simpler than it is. For instance, maternity/paternity leave. If you give someone full leave, one could argue that it's a benefit only afforded to FTEs and that could be enough to convince the local business office that the person is, in fact, an FTE. Now you're in violation and have to pay fines as well as setup a local office of one, who will never visit said office. So you do the proxy office thing, which incurs cost right away. Come tax season, you have to figure out what you owe based on the person and your new legal status as a for profit business in the area. Your cost to operate has just become significantly higher. Now you have to rethink the position and location and a non zero number of these will result in closing the local role and having to let someone go. Lose lose for everyone. The alternative path says "no baby leave because you're a contractor." That sucks too because you like the people you hire and want to do right by them but that also means keeping them employed. You can find alternatives and that's not a literal situation but it is the combination of a few situations into one example, so the contents are real but not as a single tale. (I don't want to tell anyone's specific story.) Global remote hiring is hard.
gregjor 3y ago
This, and the (I would think obvious) detail that IRS rules and US labor standards may not mean anything in other countries. Just because the “employer” classifies someone as a 1099 contractor doesn’t mean that classification and the associated tax rules apply to a foreign national working in another country.

igetspam 3y ago

When everyone is a contractor, you actually have to treat them they way too. That means there are benefits and supportive actions you cannot take or they become an employee by the implication. Then you may have to setup a local business, convert them to full time and deal with the local gov. It sounds much simpler than it is. For instance, maternity/paternity leave. If you give someone full leave, one could argue that it's a benefit only afforded to FTEs and that could be enough to convince the local business office that the person is, in fact, an FTE. Now you're in violation and have to pay fines as well as setup a local office of one, who will never visit said office. So you do the proxy office thing, which incurs cost right away. Come tax season, you have to figure out what you owe based on the person and your new legal status as a for profit business in the area. Your cost to operate has just become significantly higher. Now you have to rethink the position and location and a non zero number of these will result in closing the local role and having to let someone go. Lose lose for everyone. The alternative path says "no baby leave because you're a contractor." That sucks too because you like the people you hire and want to do right by them but that also means keeping them employed. You can find alternatives and that's not a literal situation but it is the combination of a few situations into one example, so the contents are real but not as a single tale. (I don't want to tell anyone's specific story.) Global remote hiring is hard.

gregjor 3y ago

This, and the (I would think obvious) detail that IRS rules and US labor standards may not mean anything in other countries. Just because the “employer” classifies someone as a 1099 contractor doesn’t mean that classification and the associated tax rules apply to a foreign national working in another country.