Independent Contractor Enforcement: There's More Than The IRS To Fear

Janet Novack, Forbes Staff

Do you employ “independent contractors” or “freelancers” who might arguably be considered employees? Through the years, the employee classification issue has caused problems for businesses ranging from Lowe's Cos. and FedEx to the operator of a strip club.  And this issue is only heating up.  Forbes tax contributors have written extensively about the Internal Revenue Service’s recent crackdown on what it sees as misclassified workers. But the IRS isn’t alone. In the following guest column, John Thompson, a partner in the Atlanta office of Fisher & Phillips, a national labor law firm representing management, offers a warning about stepped-up enforcement by the U.S. Labor Department and a primer on worker classification. It’s timely reading considering that Thomas Perez, President Obama’s nominee for Labor Secretary, emphasized the issue when he headed up Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation, from 2007 to 2009. 

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