Hire as an independant

Run like hell. What are the risks of using the wrong label?If a payer treats a worker as an independent contractor and some legal forum determines otherwise, the financial liability could be enormous.

• The payer will be forced to remit to the government all the deductions it should have made from the employee's pay (e.g., Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, income tax), plus any interest and penalties that apply.
• If a payer incorrectly describes many employees as contractors and the workers successfully complain to the Employment Standards Tribunal, the payer will owe these workers additional payments for such items as overtime and vacations, plus any penalties imposed.

If a worker believes s/he is a contractor and finds out later that s/he was an employee, the worker may have to resubmit applicable income tax returns and may owe monies, including penalties. For example, the worker may have deducted numerous expenses that an employee is not permitted to deduct.

Note: An agreement that labels a worker as either an employee or an independent contractor is not binding on the government or any other legal forum. The tests discussed earlier provide some guidance but these issues are often not clear-cut.



http://www.law-faqs.org/wiki/index....between_employees_and_independent_contractors
Read all of this:

 

Revenue Canada asks:

" Do you hold the ownership or lease on the equipment you use"

If you say "no".....they say you are not legally a subcontractor.

Otherwise everyone would list themselves as a subcontractor and pay little to nothing in taxes while claiming deductions while paying out virtually nothing in exspenses.

The worst part is that Revenue Canada will hit you hard in penalties plus the tax you owe.

The company wants you to incorporate so in the event that they get audited the law will see that they have paid monies to a registered company(which they'll claim) and also paid HST(which they'll claim) which will see them in no violation of any tax laws. Their ### is covered and yours is fully exsposed.

If revenue Canada were serious about tax evasion they would simply make it a crime to pay out money to any person who was not operating in accordance with the tax code. So every company that said "18 bucks plus HST" in their adds would be commiting a crime by knowingly hiring someone that would not be supplying the equipment.

Driver services are the biggest offenders.

 

I believe its legal to use a contractor for sporadic/short term use though. I have done that for fill ins. If you fill in for a couple of weeks, or on the weekend once in awhile.
But I believe you have to show employment elsewhere as well.

 

Sarabeara.

Here's the link to Rev Can and the criteria they look at when determining an individuals status as either "self employed" or "employed by a payer".

Where would your "subcobtractor" be classified?

This is a good read for many owner operators as well.
There was a court ruling many years back in regards to Mackie moving systems and a union vote. The court had ruled that since the OO's were dependant on Mackie for work, they were entitled to participate in negotiations. It also could be possible for an OO to engage the labour board on their behalf if they convince the board that they meet the criteria for an "employee/employer relationship". Are OO's really independant?

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/rc4110/rc4110-e.html

 

It is an interesting read.
For most o/o's the follow line, "The payer determines and controls the method and amount of pay." would make o/o's employees as that line was to
show evidence of an employee.
I've had one job where I've got to tell the payer how much I want per hour. How many o/o's get to walk into Plains, or some Mullen company and
dictate how much they want per mile? They get to tell o/o's how much they make. Take it or leave it.

 

Grimm and I are very familiar with the MacKie case. As for stating how much you want, that's treated just like an agreement between employer and employee.

I always tell drivers and operators to sell themselves. Employer says, "this is what I pay". Reply back, "This is how much I work for".