Hi all! Just trying to get some advice. My husband has a small business, him and 2 employees. We carry liability insurance and workmens comp, we have commercial insurance on our dump truck and chipper, pay the proper taxes and unemployment. We laid them both off for the winter and strarted back to work about a month ago.
Question is this: one of our guys decided he would rather be subcontractor than employee. He bought his chainsaws, climbing equipment (spikes, saddle, ropes), and backpack blower, rakes, etc. He bought a dump truck (has commercial insurance on it), just supplied us with a certificate of general liability insurance equal to what we carry and provided us with a letter of resignation. He is now no longer our employee. Can we now sub out jobs to him?
My husband really likes working with him, he trained him, and this guy knows how he likes jobs done. My husband is very picky, and won't leave a job he can't sign his name to proudly. And this guy wants to work with my husband, but wants his own start, too. We have no problem with him being a competitor as long as he is not competing on sites he is working on either with my husband or that he gives to him completely. Can this be done? He wants to sub out rigging, cleanups and hauling when they work on a site together. If it is a job this guy can do on his own, my husband would like to sub out the full removal and cleanup. My husband is looking to venture mostly into pruning of trees, since he just got his certification.
I know he cannot tell him how to do a job, just the end result, but it should work just fine, since he worked with my husband for 2 years and knows how he likes things done and what he expects.
Does anyone think this will be problematic? Or are we safe legally and taxwise to sub out to him?
ETA:This is not a ploy to not pay taxes or comp, we have done that for 2 years with him and still do on the other guy. He chose to starts his own tree business, but we want to be affiliated is all.
Question is this: one of our guys decided he would rather be subcontractor than employee. He bought his chainsaws, climbing equipment (spikes, saddle, ropes), and backpack blower, rakes, etc. He bought a dump truck (has commercial insurance on it), just supplied us with a certificate of general liability insurance equal to what we carry and provided us with a letter of resignation. He is now no longer our employee. Can we now sub out jobs to him?
My husband really likes working with him, he trained him, and this guy knows how he likes jobs done. My husband is very picky, and won't leave a job he can't sign his name to proudly. And this guy wants to work with my husband, but wants his own start, too. We have no problem with him being a competitor as long as he is not competing on sites he is working on either with my husband or that he gives to him completely. Can this be done? He wants to sub out rigging, cleanups and hauling when they work on a site together. If it is a job this guy can do on his own, my husband would like to sub out the full removal and cleanup. My husband is looking to venture mostly into pruning of trees, since he just got his certification.
I know he cannot tell him how to do a job, just the end result, but it should work just fine, since he worked with my husband for 2 years and knows how he likes things done and what he expects.
Does anyone think this will be problematic? Or are we safe legally and taxwise to sub out to him?
ETA:This is not a ploy to not pay taxes or comp, we have done that for 2 years with him and still do on the other guy. He chose to starts his own tree business, but we want to be affiliated is all.
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