{"id":69,"date":"2008-08-01T10:06:33","date_gmt":"2008-08-01T14:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/?p=69"},"modified":"2008-08-01T10:06:33","modified_gmt":"2008-08-01T14:06:33","slug":"question-of-the-week-does-massachusetts-have-laws-regarding-employees-and-independent-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/2008\/08\/question-of-the-week-does-massachusetts-have-laws-regarding-employees-and-independent-contractors\/","title":{"rendered":"Question of the Week: Does Massachusetts Have Laws Regarding Employees and Independent Contractors?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\">This week\u2019s question comes from Louisa, an HR manager: We have individuals who perform services for us. Does Massachusetts have any laws to determine if these individuals are our employees or independent contractors? Answer: In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mass.gov\/legis\/laws\/mgl\/149-148b.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Massachusetts General Laws (MGL), c. 149, \u00a7148B<\/a> three tests are enumerated and unless the individual meets all three tests, an employer-employee relationship will result. The tests are (1) the individual is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, both under his contract for the performance of service and in fact; and (2) the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer; and, (3) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed. The law also states that\u00a0not withholding federal or state income taxes or not paying unemployment insurance or workers compensation insurance premiums for this individual has no impact on the determination. Furthermore, even if the individual has a workers\u2019 compensation insurance policy, it is not relevant for making the determination. To further complicate matters, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) issued <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mass.gov\/?pageID=dorterminal&amp;L=7&amp;L0=Home&amp;L1=Businesses&amp;L2=Help+%26+Resources&amp;L3=Legal+Library&amp;L4=Technical+Information+Releases&amp;L5=TIRs+-+By+Year(s)&amp;L6=2005+Releases&amp;sid=Ador&amp;b=terminalcontent&amp;f=dor_rul_reg_tir_tir_05_11&amp;csid=Ador\" target=\"_blank\">TIR 05-11<\/a>, that states the DOR will follow the rules of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mass.gov\/legis\/laws\/mgl\/gl-62b-toc.htm\" target=\"_blank\">MGL c. 62B<\/a> for withholding purposes. Significant penalties exist for misclassifying workers, so be sure to consult your attorney if you have further questions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s question comes from Louisa, an HR manager: We have individuals who perform services for us. Does Massachusetts have any laws to determine if these individuals are our employees or independent contractors? Answer: In Massachusetts General Laws (MGL), c. 149, \u00a7148B three tests are enumerated and unless the individual meets all three tests, an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[85,84,91,51,83,50,13,86,44,90],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}