what are the laws if your working as an independent contractor?

Question

i currently work 2 jobs both as an independent contractor...what are the laws for working like this? what if my company does shady stufF?

I know i need to pay taxes thats not what i mean, i guess my questions should be "what are my rights as an independent contractor" any one know of any good websites ?

Answer 1

I hope you don't forget about the Social security taxes that you need to pay. Oh and Medicare taxes. You get to pay your share and what your employer would of had to pay.

Answer 2

It depends on your State, "Generally" speaking, an Independant Contractor must be truly independant.

If I pay you $200 a week to clean my offices, and you can come and do it when you want, do it yourself or send someone else, do it in 10 minutes or spend 3 hours a day on it - all at your own discretion - then you're an independant contractor. If I pay you the same $200 a week, but tell you to come in from 5 till 7 every night, do it this way not that, use this cleaner not that one, then you're working under my direction, and you're an employee.

The law in this area is always changing though. There was just a landmark case in CA where the court ruled that a deliver service's drivers were employees, even though the company called them IC's, they used their own cars, paid their own insurance, and could work or not whenever they wanted to.

You should talk to a labor lawyer in your State about your *exact* job duties to get a determination.

Richard

Answer 3

I am an independent contractor. Simply put, your responsible for all of your taxes, medical insurance, liability insurance and so on. The person or company that you contract work for pays only the set amount of your estimate or hourly charge - and his responsibility ends there.
The second part of your question is somewhat confusing- "what if my company does shady stuff?"
I assume that you mean the company that you are doing work for since you are your own company and if you personally "do shady stuff" I suspect it will catch up to you sooner or later and bite you on the butt.
If the company that you contract work for is doing "shady stuff" - I would personally distance myself from them - odds are they'll get caught and you really don't want to be part of the inevitable investigation.

Answer 4

Pay your friggin taxes and nobody gets hurt. Thats pretty much it.

Consider general liability insurance... but its not illegal to not have it.

If you knowingly participate in something shady for the company, you can be sued or the company can be sued. In fact, either of you can be criminally liable (includes corporations!) The independent contractor thing wont get you off the hook.

Answer 5

What laws are you asking about? If you're a contractor, you can work for as many companies as you please. You are not their employee, so if they do something illegal it's not your problem.

You need to be way more specific here.