This may have gone under your radar during these hectic days of the filing season but please note that, once again, both the US House (via H.R. 4123) and the US Senate (via S.1245) are both seeking to make your compliance job that much tougher when it comes to worker classification issues.

What each body of Congress is simultaneously attempting to do is target the Section 530 Safe Harbor currently offering some protection to US employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors. Section 530 currently offers up to employers a small level of protection if they have a reasonable basis for misclassifying their worker as an independent contractor and not an employee. However, under the bills recently introduced in Congress employers would not be able to use Section 530 as a shield for misclassification.

Keep in mind that this is not the first time such bills have been introduced, but we recommend you pay continued attention to their progress as there is a tremendous amount of pressure on the Treasury Department to come up with new revenue and further close the tax gap.