Home Improvement Contractor - Licensed Contractors
Independent contractor vs employee working as private music teacher for music school?
I work for a music school as a private lessons teacher. I follow their schedule, their pay plan, work in their building, yet they want me to become an independent contractor so they can have a tax and social security break. They have 2 locations and I left one because they switched everyone to an IC status. When I got my w2's the location I left didn't take out any taxes. What can I do about that? My current location took out the correct state tax but only took out $20 for federal (should have been over $1200). These folks are very nice people but they are listening to folks that don't know what they're talking about. What is the least damaging solution to this problem? The way it is now I owe over $1000 to IRS because of their mistake.
Public Comments
- Hey Joe. The IRS has very well defined rules that determine whether or not a person is an employee or an independent contractor. An employer CANNOT just decide to call you an IC - you must actually be an IC under IRS guidelines. You can check with your accountant or the IRS for their guidelines on ICs. Frankly, if they are defining when and where you teach, you are an employee, not an IC. Best wishes and good luck.
- Arbitrarily changing your status without changing your duites is audit bait. You should submit IRS Form SS-8 to get you status clarified. If there are a lot of people involved, include that fact in your narrative.
