just a quick question about the ways of some companies

ah - no - they were brought in for a specific project that we couldn't do (time to devote to project, mostly) ourselves. They didn't answer phones, or anything else we did - they worked on JUST that project.

 

The Long Haul (a Flying J publication) has an article in Volume 22/Issue 3 2007 which addresses this topic. Because many employers are cheating and treating employees like independant contractors, the artical states in part, "In May, John Tuzynski, the cheif of employment tax for the Internal Revenue Service, told the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation, "It's safe to say if you thought worker classification cases were increasing, you are going to see a nice increase in our fiscal 2008 plan. This will be a major emphasis for us.""

The trucking industry has been taking advantage of uneducated drivers for a long time. If you could save almost 8% by a status change of your factors of production you'd be crazy not to try I guess. None-the-less, it has never been as muddied as Fed-Ex has tried to make it.

BRI

 

This has been an issue on alot of IRS audits on small business in the past.

There are publications on this. Employers do this to avoid the social security tax, workmen's comp issues and covering the employee with insurance and other benefits.