Is this telemarketing company a fraud??

Question

I work for a company called grand discovery, it is a travel company. I am actually a telemarketer for them, working in a seperate building. they do not take taxes out of our paychecks, and gave us w-9 tax forms to fill out when i started.

a major issue also is they get massive amounts of complaints about their bussiness, such as the customer stating that they never got to go on vacation and never got what was promised without paying massive amounts of money. they ARE a part of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and also they are a memeber of the Chamber Of Commerce. Im a seceptical about working here at all now, i make great money, but i am scared i am going to get personal law suit filed against me for telling the customers something that is untrue, but is required of me to say. or even that i am going to get in trouble with the irs for them not taking my taxes out. please give me some guidance as to weather or not i should be working here.

Answer 1

If you filled out a W9, then you are claiming that you are self employed and they don't have to withhold taxes from your check. This means at the end of the year, you are responsible for you Federal tax, Social Security and Medicare. When you fill out a W4, that is for employees. It is nothing you are doing wrong, it is the company and they know it. By IRS guideline, if they give you the necessary tools and place to do your job you are an employee. When you file your taxes, either one or two things you should do. File without your 1099, if that is all you have don't file, the IRS will send you a letter and you just call them and tell them you work at a company location, they provide with an office and phone and such, and you believed you are an employee. They will then make the company pay the employees taxes and send you a W2 and you can then file your taxes for a refund. Or you can call the IRS before you file any taxes and say I have received an 1099 from my employer and I don't understand why no taxes were withheld during the year. I work in their office and I use their equipment and supplies. What am I supposed to do? Believe the IRS will jump on this one. Good luck to you and enjoy.

Answer 2

Anyone can join the BBB and the Chamber. Don't let that fool you into thinking they are on the up-and-up.

However, the fact that they gave you a W-9 is perfectly legal on their part and means that YOU should be saving money to pay your taxes when they are due next year. You are not an actual employee, you are self-employed, and the taxes are YOUR responsibility. Next year at tax time, the company will turn in the amount of money they paid you to the IRS, and you will owe the taxes. If you didn't understand this, you should have asked, and/or not taken the job.

Sorry to be the voice of doom, but you need to start putting away tax money now.

Answer 3

given that they gave you a w-9, this will tell you how much you made, and you will be responsible for any taxes at tax time. you will inform the irs how much you made, and you will pay the appropriate taxes. as for personal law suit, highly unlikely, most people dont remember or write the names of telemarketers down, so if a lawsuit entails it will be against the company. You are in a position that is hated by the public, understand that. Also understand that customers generally here what they want to hear, or they dont understand terms, so if they lose out they blame the company. if your company is with the BBB then I wouldnt worry much.
if you are lying to customers because you are told to, well, most companies are not totally honest to the customer. I worked for a major computer company as a sales rep, and many times was told to lie to the customer, but this company continues to thrive.
If its a case of morals that you are struggling with, consider a job change, you really dont want to be unhappy at your job.
hope that helps some. good luck.

Answer 4

Your company is legal. I have worked for a marketing company as a telemarketer for a little over 2 years now. I work marketing for time share resorts, we offer vacations as incentives to our costomers.
a w-9 is a tax form, no taxes are being taken out because at the end of the year (next Jan.) You will get a 10-99 to file. a 10-99 means 99% of the time you OWE the gonverment. I sugest if you are alone putting away 15% of your earnings to save up for tax time, if you have a dependant like me then id sugest 22% of your earnings be saved. If you wish you can always choose to not file your 10-99 and you have up to 4 years to file it, it is boarderline illegal not to file though. The best bet is to get a w-2 day job to defray the cost at the end of the year.
As for compaints, your company can give away the gifts but they can not give away the taxes, the cost people are paying is the tax on the gift. Such as we have a package that is 3/2 airfare and hotel accomidations to either Vegas or Florida. The costomer has to send in the form with 100$, thats the tax for both tickets and hotel costs, then we send them a conf code to call a certian vacation consultant to set them up. We also have a gift package which is a cruise for 4 days 3 nights and the tax on that is 300$ total.

Your company is ligit, most are. The gifts are ligit, it seems shady because you are in a sense lying to people, and even though its not an out right lie, you are deciving them by not telling them everything.
A great example of this is a prize we use to offer, 100$ in gasoline vouchers, sounds great eh? Well if you dont ask, we dont tell you anything about them. If you ask we tell you you get a voucher, send in a gas receipt and well send you a check back! You ask no more questions and book with us, what you dont know is the vouchers are in 10$ increments, send it in, wait 12 weeks we send you another voucher for 10$ and a check for 10$, the whole thing takes over a year and a half to complete, hadly worth the effort. The voucher company makes money on people never completing the sequence.

If you have guilt then find another job. If you dont mind lying, knowing that your not lying just deciving then keep at it. Im glad you make good money at it, I do it just because I have a kid to support and i need a night job that lets me come in late and work arround my time.

Answer 5

It sounds like you are considered an independent contractor and will be responsible at the end of the year for paying your own taxes, including 15.3% for self-employment tax for social security and medicare, in addition to income taxes. You should be making quarterly estimated payments using form 1040ES.

As to the company, it sounds like they aren't telling the customers the whole story up front. That's fraudulent, and they'll eventually probably get shut down for doing it. I'd look for another job where I could feel like what I'm doing is honest.

Being a member of BBB and CC just means the company pays for a membership, it doesn't say anything about their honesty.

Answer 6

Prob a scam but look into more before SNITCHING them out. Cause you don't know all the full details otherwise why are you asking on here? I'm told that almost anyone can get into the BBB but I could be wrong about that. I would ask another employee to be upfront and honest with you about the company if it's shady or not. GOOD LUCK and be careful cause you don't want the IRS to mess with you.

Answer 7

These days it's mostly election related telemarketing. People looking for me to donate money or support something or another. In the past it's mostly financial companies that do business with my bank -- those peeps are exempt from the Do Not Call List so they won't freaking leave me alone!!!!

Answer 8

Dear Aimee,

First of all, if are not sure, why are you talking about it so specific? If they are OK you can ruin a legitimate business.
If you are in doubt you must check your local law, maybe is more permissive than you know. Maybe the this biz it is just poorly managed. You are not a client so your complain is not legitimate.
Anyway I understand your dilemma: should I stay or should I go?
Leave it!