Former independent contractor an HCE?

[Guest mo]

We are setting up a plan for a golf resort, effective 1/1/2000. Many of the golf pros will earn enough annually to be categorized as HCE's. However, these pros were classified as independent contractors up until 10/1/99, so their compensation as "employees" for 1999 will be itself not cause them to be HCE's for 2000. The question is whether it is possible to disregard independent contractor income from the same source in determining HCE status. It doesn't sound good to me (who knows whether the independent contractor classification was proper?) but others may feel differently.

[MWeddell]

It's a big assumption, but assuming the independent contractor determination was correct, you'd have to exclude payments prior to when they became employees in identifying HCEs.