- 7 - (5) employees not wishing to become independent contractors would be discharged prior to January 1, 1992. After January 1, 1992, there was no change in the activities petitioner’s workers performed (i.e., in 1992, the workers did much of the same work). The reason petitioner wanted to convert its employees to independent contractors was to protect petitioner from lawsuits6 and to have better control over the activities of its workers. Petitioner was advised by an attorney to convert the employees to independent contractors to limit petitioner’s liability. Petitioner continued directly paying its workers. Several of petitioner’s checks issued to its workers, and signed by Miller, in 1992 bear the notation “payroll”. Additionally, there was a debit slip dated July 3, 1992, for petitioner’s bank account that noted that cash was withdrawn for payroll. For 1991, petitioner reported salaries and wages of $196,433 on its Federal corporate income tax return, and it issued 51 Forms W-2 to its employees reporting total wages of $196,432.60. Petitioner also reported $81,143 of subcontractual labor, and it issued 10 Forms 1099-MISC reporting total payments of $37,930.74. 6 In 1991, some of petitioner’s workers were stealing and sabotaging its products. There were walnut shells in the cookies and nails in the brownies. Consumers of petitioner’s products had retained attorneys and were suing petitioner.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
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