How do you pay the help

[Christian Brown]

Contractors (a.k.a. freelancers) send me an invoice and W9.

I do the same when I work for them.

[Jonathan Levin]

"A worker who has a risk of loss in his/her business activities may be an independent contractor. If not, the worker is generally an employee."

"In analyzing whether there is a continuing relationship, one should ask whether the worker is hired for an indefinite period or for a specific project with finite duration. If the worker is hired for an indefinite period the worker is considered an employee.(9) If the worker is working on a specific project with a finite duration, the worker may be either an employee or an independent contractor and the analysis should continue..."

Brian, Thanks for the link. In typical IRS fashion, the description is at best vague, bloated, and incomprehensible.

What I take away from this is that if a person works (even in an on going project) and is not covered by insurance, tax not with-held, health benefits, worker's comp, etc, that person is an independent contractor AKA, at least to me, a freelancer.

Even though these IC are not on a payroll, they could still make a claim because of loss or injury on the job, which is where workers comp comes into play. When I get hired for a project, I am requested to fill out a W-2 with FEIN and so on.

Jonathan
I'm just going by what my expensive account tells me.