About This Course:
While Independent Contractors may be a necessary and strategic component to your business, the IRS, Workers Compensation, and state agencies are concerned with whether or not a worker has been misclassified - and thus feel that they are not getting their share of taxes - and have stepped up the number of audits that are aimed specifically at worker classification.
A "re-classification" of the your Independent Contractors to employees can result in assessments against your organization for back taxes, substantial penalties, and interest. To prevent substantial fines and penalties you need to know the rules regarding what makes a worker an Independent Contractor versus an employee, and that is where this training session can help.
Your trainer is Mark Schwartz, a former payroll tax auditor. Mark will provide examples from his auditing and hearing experience, including the twenty factors used to determine if an employment relationship exists. He'll also help you analyze language used in contracts with Independent Contractors to see if such language can be used against you in an audit.
You will leave the webinar understanding how to defend your position on your workers so the auditors will have a difficult time substantiating re-classification of your Independent Contractors to employees.
What You'll Learn:During this training session, you will learn how to properly indentify, use, and pay Independent Contractors to prevent costly worker-classification audits. Specifically, you and/or your team will learn:
- The twenty factors used to determine if an employment relationship exists
- What the IRS and states consider a bona fide independent contractor
- How to use contracts to solidify your relationship - and how they can both help and hurt
- How to set up a screening system that can be used by your hiring managers and human resource personnel to insure that they are following the IRS rules
- What the auditing agencies are focusing on
- How to determine the scope and potential areas of focus for your audit
- How to identify any areas of concern prior to an external audit or an audit by another group within your company
- Common areas where mistakes or issues can normally be found
- How a review can help you detect internal control issues
- Where to go to for assistance so you're not re-creating the wheel
- Devising a game plan on what you want to review and how to divide and conquer
Top FAQs
Payroll Administrators must be able to:
- Properly "classify" workers
- Apply the various exemptions
- Calculate gross pay and properly make deductions
- Correctly identify, pay, and withhold taxes for employees
- Administer deferred compensation, cafeteria plan, sick pay, and other compensation
- Handle stock options, expense reimbursements, relocation, and other "expenses"
- Follow the proper policies, procedures, and documentation requirements for garnishments and levies
- Properly complete and file all required reporting requirements
- Correctly complete year-end requirements and establish year-beginning requirements
- Implement and maintain fraud, audit, disaster recovery, and record retention processes and procedures
In business since the mid-1990's, we have over 25 years of experience delivering high-quality training content via seminar, webinar, online, and other formats. Each of our courses are delivered by an industry expert who will share his or her years of experience to help you be in compliance, smarter, and more productive, and almost all offer SHRM and HRCI credits.
While many payroll-related regulations are federally-governed, there also are many state requirements, including those for handling garnishment, final paychecks, and unclaimed paychecks. Each state's requirements differ in the details, so be sure to check your state's requirements by clicking the applicable link(s) at the bottom of this page.
A payroll audit is a review of an organization's payroll procedures. It can be done internally for assurance or by an external entity such as the government in reponse to a complaint, lack or inconsistent reporting, etc.
It often depends upon which factors - such as pay, tools, equipment, work hours, manner and means of performing services, etc,) the worker has control over.
The company withholds income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from wages paid for employees, but none for Independent Consultants.
Payroll is much more than just handing out paychecks, and includes a variety of responsibilities such as handling garnishments, travel pay, multi-state taxation, unclaimed paychecks, and much more in a timely and accurate fashion.
Definitely! An audit can be done either by an internal person or outsourced to an expert, with the expectation of fixing or updating any issues to avoid fines, penalties, etc.
In addition to ensuring that employees are paid correctly and on time, "Payroll" has numerous time and reporting requirements. The primary payroll areas include paychecks, reporting, operations, and management.
Employees work directly for the company, which controls their work, pays their taxes, and often provides benefits, whereas the Independent Contractor is hired to do a specific job without the employee perks.
A payroll audit typically occurs because either for many reasons: an employee makes a claim of unfair pay practices
Continuing Education Credits:
Click the 'Credits' tab above for information on PHR/SPHR, PDCs, and other CE credits offered by taking this course.
