unless they did contract work for two or more companies. If several employees (say the accounting section) were laid off, they could form a service contracting business. Then they would just need to contract with their old employers, plus another business or so, on occasion. That should prevent them being deemed “employees”.””
As a person who was self-employed since about 1980, There are more standards to be met.
YOU have to have more than ‘2 employers’. therwise—all you have is a ‘2nd job’.
You have to provide ALL your pens, pencils, calculators, tools, safety items, etc. As a bookkeeper, I also provided the computer & the software & did pick ups & deliveries. I did very little time within the walls of any client.
You have to be setting your own hours. IF you are starting work at a particular time & having your breaks & lunch at a specific time & quitting & leaving the building at a specific time—you are an employEE. The employER is setting the time agenda because of their operating hours.
I had my own office at home. I had as many as 19 clients at one time, most of them grossing less than $200,000 a year. I did alot of driving & ate alot of my lunches in my car.......God Bless In N Out.!!
I have to have the ability to make INDEPENDENT decisions—such as a doctor or a nurse or a certified accountant. Such ability requires specified schooling & training.
The amount of time you spend doing the most hours with your busiest client is also a factor.
Say a guy works at a ranch—lives on the ranch—has power, phone, and living quarters provided by the ranch. He also does some stall cleaning at a couple of personal local residences which have horses. His hourly duties are about 88% at the main ranch & those 2 clients use about 10-12% of his time, including his travel time.
He is an EMPLOYEE of the main ranch-—and that ranch is responsible for his tax withholding, payment of matching FICA & Medicare, and all state & federal employment taxes. Only the 2 personal residences can claim him on a 1099.
I used to have all the Federal standards in print. Probably still do somewhere—but sometimes the desk is truly a black hole. Nonetheless, I am sure they are available on the internet.
I suspect that with Obamacare, the Obama Gestapo will be very busy looking at everyone’s working hours & status.
I would shut down my business to only ME working if I had to.
Those rules sound similar to the ones I had to work with here — but, also different, as expected. There will be some very lucrative consulting opportunities, for experts helping small businesses navigate the Unaffordable Care Act (UCA) rules.
“YOU have to have more than ‘2 employers’. therwise—all you have is a ‘2nd job’.”
That’s why I think that it would be better for all the laid-off employees of (say) the accounting section to form their own firm (partnership, or whatever). Perhaps including former employees of another business or two — so long as the new company remains under 50 employees. That would make it easier for the new service company to have several clients.
The alternative, for anyone wishing more independence, would be to do all the things you mention.
The alternative, for the small business trying to downsize by outsourcing, would be to simply take competitive bids, from all interested service companies. There are advantages to that approach too — but, there are big advantages of sticking with people, who already know how you like to have things done.
I can see virtually all “back-office” jobs migrating to contractors, due to the UCA rules. Also, I expect that office-temp companies will be seeing some boom years ahead — unless the UCA also captures temp workers from 3rd party agencies.