Employee of three years switched to 1099

[marykate45]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? New Jersey

I have been a employee of a company for over three years. About seven months back, they decided that they were going to change our status to 1099 employees.

Actually, what they did was spilt my salary in half. <Background>They have two legal company names which when I was hired ,operated as one company and I did work for both and was a employee of both. I received one paycheck.

Than the switch, They spilt up the salary. They kept me a employee of One company (very small amount) and put the majority of my pay on the second company and the 1099 status. We were told that we would get changed back to employee status in Dec. Well, it is now Feb and we were told that they were not going to switch us back.

Any advice? Is this legal? I know that I am gonna have to pay alot of taxes this year and do not want the same thing to happen next year.

Thanks.

 

[cbg]

It was probably not legal for them to switch you to 1099 in the first place, and if it wasn't, then refusing to switch you back is just compounding the illegality.

An employer cannot just arbitrarily decide to make you an independent contractor (which is what 1099 status implies). If you fit the definition of an employee, you can't be made an IC. This employer may find themselves in trouble up the ying-yang if they keep this up.

I'm not certain who the regulatory agency is for this issue, however; Beth? Patty? Would this be a DOL thing?

 

[pattytx]

It's probably more of an IRS thing.

 

[the6nz]

The 1099 means that you are now self-employed. It also means you are entitled to expenses such as transpsortation costs, uniforms or materials or even a vehicle used for work related travel. If you are self-employed...do you do part of your work at home? If your computer is at home and you spend time doing work related stuff there you may be able to claim part of your home as an officce. Self employed people are also entiteled, in most states, to set their own schedule. However, that may be the reason you are part time employed with the company. Ask an attorney. The other part of the time you may be able to set your own hours. These surprise changes should work both ways. Good Luck. ds

 

[pattytx]

Yes, the, but as cbg noted, the company cannot arbitrarily change a worker from an employee to an independent contractor, just because they "wanna". There has to be a change in the company/worker relationship. The IRS does not look kindly on not classifying employee correctly, since tax revenue can be lost.

 

[anteater]

The 1099 means that you are now self-employed. It also means you are entitled to expenses such as transpsortation costs, uniforms or materials or even a vehicle used for work related travel. If you are self-employed...do you do part of your work at home? If your computer is at home and you spend time doing work related stuff there you may be able to claim part of your home as an officce. Self employed people are also entiteled, in most states, to set their own schedule. However, that may be the reason you are part time employed with the company. Ask an attorney. The other part of the time you may be able to set your own hours. These surprise changes should work both ways. Good Luck. ds

I hope that this was all firmly tongue in cheek.

 

[pattytx]

anteater, so do I.