0002 WWC Are You a Solopreneur or an Employee – Jeffrey Cochran interview

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Today’s topic is “Solopreneur. Am I actually an employee?” I talk with Jeffrey Cochran, SPHR, a Human

Resource consultant with HR Perspective and Recruiting (https://www.hrperspectives.org/), addressing regulatory compliance and employee satisfaction.

• Legally, a solopreneur may work as a sole proprietor, LLC, or LLP
• Problems arise when other entities, e.g., the IRS (tax dollars) or Labor Department (Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)), don’t recognize their legal status and categorize them differently.
• IRS looks at relationship between individual and consulting client from 3 areas, Common Law Rules
  • Type of Relationship (contractual agreement)
  • Behavioral control over individual (work hours, work space, work flow)
  • Financial control over individual (who’s paying for process, tools, weekly check, etc.)
• The Department of Labor uses the FLSA to judge whether or not the individual is an independent contractor
  • Economic Reality Test (20 points)
  • Contractual Agreement with a scope of work
  • Controls similar to the IRS criteria
  • Work is invoiced
  • Working with multiple clients
  • Potential for both profit or loss
  • 1099s
  • States can decide an individual is am employee, e.g., California and Uber and Lyft drivers
• For those working in the gig economy these concerns are important to pay attention to
• More information can be gathered at the Department of Labor’s website (https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs13.htm) as well as the IRS’s (https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee) web site
• How these issues arise and get the IRS’s and DOL’s attention.
• How to avoid these issues

• Future topics are discussed. Stay tuned!

Jeffrey can be reached at 614-565-8073 and jcochran@hrperspectives.org

For more information on the “8 Steps From Chaos To Clarity and Calm: CEO Advanced Training” go to

https://www.ctrchg.com/ceo-advanced-training/

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