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from the get-to-refile-four-years-of-state-and-federal-taxes,-too dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
New Jersey is the latest state to say Uber's drivers should be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. The state's labor department said that because of this misclassification, the ride-hailing company owes it roughly $650 million in unemployment taxes and disability insurance, according to Bloomberg Law.
The labor department reportedly has been trying to get unpaid employment taxes from Uber going back as far as 2015, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg Law. It said the company owed the state $523 million in overdue taxes along with another $119 million in interest and penalties for the last four years. Uber disputes these findings.
"We are challenging this preliminary but incorrect determination," an Uber spokesman said in an email. "Because drivers are independent contractors in New Jersey and elsewhere."
Driver classification is an issue that government regulators have been taking a closer look at over the past year. California passed a law in September that could require Uber and other on-demand companies to reclassify their drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. The law is set to go into effect Jan. 1. New York, Oregon and Washington state have considered similar legislation.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 16 2019, @03:26AM (3 children)
To me, there needs to be a duck test:
1) Does the "contractor" get the majority of their pay from a single payer, year after year? If so, that's not a contractor.
2) Does the payer have a large number of "contractors" whose work is ongoing, no particular completion of a job just job after job after job after job? If so, those are not contractors.
Employees can be part time, temporary, start on short notice and quit on short notice, day labor... Calling them people contractors as a way to reduce responsibility as an employer is disingenuous - whether employee or contractor, the needs of the laborer are the same - whatever labor laws have been written for employees should also be applied to contractors.
You can split hairs about who pays the income tax - yes, that should only happen once per labor-payment event, where the insurance coverage comes from - whether employee or "contractor" the needs for insurance are the same, payment of overtime - as a part-time employee for two separate employers I was working 70+ hours some weeks without overtime pay, but in the end labor is labor regardless of how the paperwork is structured.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 16 2019, @09:00AM
Why yes, there should be a duck test. In fact, there is [irs.gov].
1) Behavioral: Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
2) Financial: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (these include things like how worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.)
3) Type of Relationship: Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e. pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.)? Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?
You can find more details on each at the IRS website, but on the surface, it seems like it's a pretty good test to me. I think the argument is that Uber passes/fails that duck test, depending on who is arguing what.
Unless you are arguing that the current test is bad for some reason, in which case can you please elaborate on which component(s) of the current test are inappropriate and why?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday November 16 2019, @11:11PM (1 child)
As long as you restrict that to the end user, or customer. Uber, when operating correctly, isn't a payer, but an intermediary between customer and contractor. No different than Stripe, Freshbooks, Quickbooks, any many other online platforms that handle customer interactions and payments. You wouldn't claim that somebody that accepted AMEX only is in fact an AMEX employee right?
Which brings up another issue, there is also Lyft involved in this discussion. It's not any real difference to me if a allegedly independent contractor is being hosed by both Uber and Lyft at the same time. Many people have two jobs, so that test doesn't catch that.
The test needs to concentrate on the levels of control over the transaction, who gets authority over invoicing, setting the price, .etc. I've been in the situation as an independent contractor where I had only one big client left, and I sure as heck didn't feel like an employee to them, nor did they see that relationship either (not that they knew how many clients I had). Especially since I set the price of my contract and they agreed.
Not all independent contractors are being abused. Uber if operating correctly would actually be a pretty neat vendor for an independent driver to have.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 16 2019, @11:36PM
Very good points, and clearly distinctive - if you are representing products from a catalog, taking a fixed commission (as my wife did for several years), calling her an "independent consultant" is just insulting.
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