Who's the Employer?

Answer: One of the difficulties of questions like this is that the determination of whether someone is an independent contractor or an employee is based on a host of facts and circumstances. You can't just look at one or two and come to a conclusion.

The facts in the question would lead one to conclude that the individual is a common law employee. These are not jobs requiring a lot of skill. There were set hours. The worker was reimbursed for business expenses. All these factors tend towards being a common law employee.

But, suppose this worker had a business cleaning homes, and advertised regularly. That would certainly indicate the worker is an independent contractor. Did he or she have the option of hiring others to do the work? Did the worker bring his or her own cleaning equipment to the job? To what extent was the worker supervised by the company?

Over and over, the IRS audit guidelines dealing with employee status remind agents to look at the whole picture, not just one or two facts. Rightly so.

This issue is discussed at length in Chapter 2 of my book, Who's the Employer?.

(P. S., if I had to guess, I'd guess this worker is a common law employee.)

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