{"id":999881265,"date":"2011-10-12T02:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/?p=67987476"},"modified":"2011-10-12T02:10:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T02:10:00","slug":"irs-contractor-amnesty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/irs-contractor-amnesty","title":{"rendered":"IRS Amnesty on Employee Misclassification: Things to Consider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/resources.dice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/irs4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2609\" title=\"IRS Logo\" src=\"http:\/\/resources.dice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/irs4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"115\" \/><\/a>If your company has misclassified employees as independent contractors, you have a chance to correct the issue &#8212; and pay a reduced penalty or fine &#8212; under a new IRS program, the <a title=\"IRS Announces New Voluntary Worker Classification Settlement Program; Past Payroll Tax Relief Provided to Employers Who Reclassify Their Workers\" href=\"http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/newsroom\/article\/0,,id=246203,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Voluntary Worker Classification Settlement Program<\/a>, or \u201cFresh Start\u201d for short.<\/p>\n<p>Although eligible employers can obtain substantial relief from federal payroll taxes, penalties and fines as long as they voluntarily change the status of misclassified workers, they may still owe state payroll taxes and unemployment contributions for the entire period. Also, coming clean doesn&#8217;t relieve you from potential misclassification issues regarding federal wage and hour laws, state-tax laws or other protections an employee might have through their employer&#8217;s handbook <a title=\"Reconsidering Worker Classifications \" href=\"http:\/\/www.hreonline.com\/HRE\/story.jsp?storyId=533342118\" target=\"_blank\">according to Michael Aitken,<\/a> vice president of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management.<\/p>\n<p>The program also subjects employers to future payroll-tax issues for six years, as opposed to the normal three-year statute of limitations.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re interested in seeking amnesty under Fresh Start, here\u2019s the list of requirements from the IRS website.<\/p>\n<p>Applicants must:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Consistently have treated the workers as nonemployees<\/li>\n<li>Have filed all required Forms 1099 for the workers for the previous three years<\/li>\n<li>Not currently be under audit by the IRS<\/li>\n<li>Not currently be under audit by the Department of Labor or a state agency concerning the classification of these workers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s your choice. But remember, you&#8217;ll have to pay the full boat if the issues are discovered during a random IRS audit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your company has misclassified employees as independent contractors, you have a chance to correct the issue &#8212; and pay a reduced penalty or fine &#8212; under a new IRS program, the Voluntary Worker Classification Settlement Program, or \u201cFresh Start\u201d for short. Although eligible employers can obtain substantial relief from federal payroll taxes, penalties and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":67987476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2155],"class_list":["post-999881265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiring-candidates"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.2 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>IRS Amnesty on Employee Misclassification: Things to Consider - Dice Hiring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If your company has misclassified employees as independent contractors, you have a chance to correct the issue -- and pay a reduced penalty or fine --\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/irs-contractor-amnesty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IRS Amnesty on Employee Misclassification: Things to Consider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your company has misclassified employees as independent contractors, you have a chance to correct the issue -- and pay a reduced penalty or fine --\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/irs-contractor-amnesty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dice Hiring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-12T02:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/hiring\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/graphic11.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"924\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dice Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Dicedotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Dicedotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dice Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty\"},\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Leslie Stevens-Huffman\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/authors\\\/leslie-stevens-huffman\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/leslieshuffman\"]},\"headline\":\"IRS Amnesty on Employee Misclassification: Things to Consider\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-12T02:10:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/graphic11.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Hiring Candidates\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dice.npgdev.com\\\/hiring\\\/recruitment\\\/irs-contractor-amnesty\",\"name\":\"IRS Amnesty on Employee Misclassification: Things to Consider - 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