Question
Assignment 1: Employee or Independent Contractor? John runs a small heating and cooling business in Midtown, Ontario. His primary business is the sale, installation, and
Assignment 1: Employee or Independent Contractor?
John runs a small heating and cooling business in Midtown, Ontario. His primary business is the sale, installation, and repair of residential furnaces and air conditioners.
John has five employees, all permanent full time. Four of the employees are involved in the installation and repairs. Sue, the one other employee, is an office receptionist/clerical assistant.
John recognizes that he does not have the financial skills to complete the year end and tax paper work required for the business. While Sue is very good at general office duties, financial matters are not her strength either.
John needs help.
Morty has been a friend of John for a number of years. Morty is a chartered accountant with significant experience in small business accounting, year end, and tax matters.
John approaches Morty to see whether he'd be interested in helping John out for a defined length of time.
Through the discussion, Morty expresses an interest in helping John. The two of them discuss the following:
- Given that all of the financial records are at John's office, it makes sense that Morty would work out of that location. There is a spare office and desk space (including all required furniture) available.
- Morty will use his own laptop because it's already loaded with the required financial software. However once the job is complete, John will purchase the same software for the office computer. Morty will download the data into the company's computer.
- Morty will be hired for a period of two months. Morty can schedule his own work hours, but he must advise Sue in advance so that Sue knows when Morty will be in.
- Morty will be paid $30.00 per hour, billed bi-weekly. Anything over 20 hours bi- weekly or 80 hours in total must be preapproved by John.
- John and Morty will meet once every two weeks to discuss the status of the work.
- Morty has mentioned that it may be beneficial to have the assistance of a cop-op accounting student. The student could perform some of the more straight forward tasks, and at a lower hourly rate. This could ultimately save John some money. John is open to the idea but wants to formally approve it before Morty hires someone. They'll leave this decision until later.
John and Morty shake hands on the deal. As Morty is about to leave, he asks John one last question - "am I being hired as an employee, or as an independent contractor?" John tells Morty that he'll have to look into that.
John comes to you for your opinion.
REVIEW:
- The information provided in Module 3, and
- The information provided by Canada Revenue Agency through the following link: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/rc4110.html
ASSIGNMENT:
What is your opinion? Is Morty likely to be seen as an employee, or as an independent contractor? Why?
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