Most workers in Massachusetts are employees, but some of them have been misclassified by their employers as “independent contractors” so that the employer can avoid paying payroll taxes, including unemployment insurance contributions and FICA taxes. The test for determining whether you are an independent contractor or an employee is whether:
- You are free from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, both under your contract for the performance of service, and in fact; and
- the service you performed was outside the usual course of the business of the employer; and,
- you are customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed.
If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, then you were properly classified as an independent contractor. But if you answered “no” to any of the three above questions, you may have been improperly misclassified – and your employer is illegally making you pay for taxes that the employer should be paying, as well as keeping you from qualifying for unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation, and you may want to speak with one of our attorneys about your legal options.
