Need advice when hiring your first employee? Discount program available to nonprofits.

06/06/2017 by Leave a Comment

Hiring employees can seem like a taunting task. My book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization can help a lot, but if you want extra services, consider contacting a service like HR Solutions Partners.

The HR Solutions Partners discount program at TechSoup provides human resources support services to eligible nonprofit organizations, charities, and public libraries throughout the United States.

With minimal experience, you can use HR Solutions Partners services for support in training employees, administering payroll, measuring employee performance, and more.

I’ve not used them, so I cannot vouch for their services, but it can’t hurt to call and talk to them.

Carol Topp, CPA

Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization covers paying workers as employees or independent contractors. There are also chapters on paying volunteers and board members. It includes sample forms, tips and advice to help you pay workers in accordance with the IRS laws to help your organization pay their workers correctly. Written specifically for homeschool organizations.

$9.95 paperback

$3.99 ebook

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Creative Ways to Run Your Homeschool Co-op Without Employees

05/11/2017 by Leave a Comment

So you really don’t want your homeschool co-op to hire teachers as employees, but how can you run your group without them? Carol Topp, the HomeschoolCPA , offers a few creative ways to run a homeschool co-op without hiring employees or dealing with payroll.

Listen to the podcast.

Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization

Are you paying workers in your homeschool organization? Can a volunteer be paid? Should a worker be treated as an employee or independent contractor? Do you know the difference?

Homeschool leader and CPA, Carol Topp, has the answers to your questions in her book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization.

This 130 page book covers paying workers as employees or independent contractors. There are also chapters on paying volunteers and board members. It includes sample forms, tips and advice to help you pay workers in accordance with the IRS laws to help your organization pay their workers correctly. Written specifically for homeschool organizations.

Click Here to request more information!

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Is there a penalty for misclassifying my homeschool group’s workers?

04/11/2017 by Leave a Comment

Is there a penalty for misclassifying my homeschool group’s workers?

The IRS imposes strict penalties on an employer who treats workers as Independent Contractors when they should be employees. These penalties have put homeschool businesses and nonprofits out of business. Carol Topp, CPA discusses this topic and some programs the IRS has to avoid crippling penalties.

Listen to the podcast 

Worker Classification Consultation

  • Is your homeschool teacher an employee or independent contractor?
  • Should your homeschool co-op director be paid as an employee?
  • How hard is it to set up a payroll system?
  • What happens if my homeschool group misclassifies a worker? Are their penalties?

Worker classification can be a confusing topic.

My book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization can help clear a lot of confusion, but perhaps you want to discuss your particular situation in a private, individual phone consultation.

I offer phone consultations to help you determine if your homeschool organization’s workers are employee or independent contractors. The phone call will be followed up with an email containing a fact-based determination and information to help you take the next steps.

Click Here to request more information!

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Is My Homeschool Co-op Teacher an Employee or Independent Contractor?

04/05/2017 by Leave a Comment

Is My Homeschool Co-op Teacher an Employee or Independent Contractor?

Should your homeschool co-op teacher be classified as an employee or an Independent Contractor? What’s the difference and how do you make the decision? Carol Topp, CPA, the HomeschoolCPA, sheds light onto this confusing topic and tells you how she determines if a co-op teacher is an employee or Independent Contractor.

Listen to the podcast

Worker Classification Consultation

  • Is your homeschool teacher an employee or independent contractor?
  • Should your homeschool co-op director be paid as an employee?
  • How hard is it to set up a payroll system?
  • What happens if my homeschool group misclassifies a worker? Are their penalties?

Worker classification can be a confusing topic.

My book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization can help clear a lot of confusion, but perhaps you want to discuss your particular situation in a private, individual phone consultation.

I offer phone consultations to help you determine if your homeschool organization’s workers are employee or independent contractors. The phone call will be followed up with an email containing a fact-based determination and information to help you take the next steps.

Click Here to request more information!

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What should a Classical Conversations tutor do if she thinks she’s misclassified?

02/24/2017 by 2 Comments

 

How should Classical Conversations’ tutors handle their employment situation? They are required to use a specific curriculum, during a specific time and attend training.

In light of Landry Academy switching to employees but still not being able to stay in business, I am wondering what your thoughts are.

-KT

 

KT,

The closing of Landry Academy in late December 2016 was certainly sad and an eye opener. I don’t know the details of what happened to them, but it does seem they underwent an IRS audit and had to reclassify their teachers as employees.

I usually advise the business owners such as a Director of a CC community, but you are asking what should the CC tutor (i.e. the worker classified as an independent contractor) do if she thinks she is misclassified and should be treated as an employee.

1. Always report in full ALL your earned income received from CC on your tax return, even if you do not receive a 1099-MISC or W-2.

2.  Discuss your classification with your CC Director. Express your concern for her potential liability if she is misclassifying workers. Tell her about this IRS website and my book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization. I also offer a service for business owners like CC Directors or nonprofit leaders to help them correctly classify and compensate their workers.

3.  Discuss your classification with your tax preparer. Seek his or her opinion on whether you wish to take advantage of the IRS reporting program. Visit this IRS page for details. If you do not have a tax preparer, you can arrange a phone consultation with me to discuss your particular situation.

Most important is for you to follow #1: Report all your earned income on your tax return even if you do not receive a 1099-MISC from your CC Director.

Carol Topp, CPA
HomeschoolCPA.com
Helping homeschool leaders (and tutors!)

 

 

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What are the consequences of misclassifying a worker?

01/10/2017 by Leave a Comment

In the news and social media recently has been the sad story about a popular service offering classes for homeschool students having to close. In late December 2016, Landry Academy announced “It is with much sadness that we close the doors of Landry Academy.”

I do not know the details of their unfortunate situation, but it seems that there was an IRS requirement for Landry Academy to reclassify their teachers as employees, rather than independent contractors.

You may be wondering: What are the consequences of misclassifying workers?

Here’s what I tell business owners, nonprofit leaders, and anyone else hiring workers:

IRS Penalties

Under Internal Revenue Code section 3509 the penalties for worker misclassification include:

  • Paying a portion of federal income tax (1.5% of payroll),
  • Employer (100%) and employee (20%) shares of FICA taxes
  • Federal unemployment compensation taxes (FUTA).
  • In addition penalties for missed deposits (10%) and withholdings (20%) can be assessed.

Additional penalties include:

  • $50 for each Form W-2 that the employer failed to file because of classifying workers as an independent contractor.
  • A Failure to Pay Taxes penalty equal to 0.5% of the unpaid tax liability for each month up to 25% of the total tax liability.

Other Penalties

That’s pretty bad when you ad it all up, but the list of consequences goes on to include:

  • Penalties for failure to file state and local income tax withholding
  • Penalties due to unemployment insurance shortfalls
  • Worker’s compensation violations
  • Improper exclusion from benefit plans such as pension, retirement plans, health insurance, paid leave, severance pay, etc.

Here’s a long list of The Consequences of Misclassifying Your 1099 Contractors

Scared yet? You probably should be.

Worker misclassification is a serious issue and can cause significant financial hardship and has caused several businesses to close.

Here’s help

My book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization can help clear a lot of confusion, but perhaps you want to discuss your particular situation in a private, individual phone consultation.

I offer phone consultations to help you determine if your homeschool organization’s workers are employees or independent contractors. The phone call will be followed up with an email containing a fact-based determination and information to help you take the next steps.

To request a consultation, please contact me. I’m happy to help and relieve any anxiety you have about this confusing topic.

Carol Topp, CPA

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Webinar on business failure in the homeschool market

01/09/2017 by 2 Comments

I am always saddened to hear about business failure in the homeschool market. I feel pain for the business owner, their employees and their customers.

  • How can this happen?
  • Can it be avoided?
  • What can a customer do if they have lost a lot of money?
  • What lessons can a homeschool business or homeschool co-op learn from others’ failures?
  • Are homeschool teachers and tutors at risk?

I’m going to answer all these questions and more during a live webinar hosted by Tammy Moore of Virtual Homeschool Group 

Webinar: Business Failures in the Homeschool Marketplace

 

Date: Saturday January 14, 2017

Time: 2:00 pm ET, 1:00 pm CT, 12 noon MT and 11:00 am PT. The webinar will last about 60 minutes.

Cost: Free

Topics:

  • For parents: How can parents avoid losing money?
  • For homeschool businesses and nonprofits: Could it happen to us?
  •  IRS audits, penalties and safe harbor provisions
  • Worker Classification: General guidelines and possible solutions
  • For homeschool teachers and tutors: Are you at risk?

Join the webinar  here

You’ll need to download the webinar application on your computer or mobile device before the webinar begins.

or phone in on Saturday January 14 at 2 pm ET/1 pm CT (only audio)

Call-in number: 571-392-7703

Participant PIN: 375 427 129 85

 

Here’s a handout I created.

I hope many of you will join me on Saturday January 14, 2017 to discuss this very important and timely issue.

Carol Topp, CPA

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Are Classical Conversations tutors employees or independent contractors?

01/03/2017 by 2 Comments

Hi Carol,
I am a part of a Classical Conversations community with a Foundations/Essentials director. The Foundations/Essentials directors hire tutors to run the classrooms on community day.

I am concerned that the  tutors are being treated as employees even though they are paid as independent contractors. Can a Foundations director hire tutors as independent contractors and still be able to specify what time they start, what material to cover and for how long they are to cover it, require training in the summer and training every 6 weeks of class etc?

Would a contract help? It seems like the contract could call the tutor an independent contractor but the Director could still treat them like employees.

This is hugely concerning and our campus wants to operate in a legal way. We are considering hiring a lawyer to help us understand all this. Is the lawyer the way to go? Or would you be able to advise on how to handle this?

We want to be legal and try to sort out truth in this whole legal situation.

Thank you for your time,

Katherine

 

Katherine,

Thank you for contacting me. I have been talking to several Classical Conversation (CC) Directors and tutors about worker classification. It’s a confusing and complex topic!

Factors: control and key activity

The question of whether CC tutors are independent contractors (IC) or employees is not cut and dried, nor the same for every CC community. There are many factors to consider including some you mentioned such as training, specific time and place to work, the curriculum to use, etc.

Two factors to consider are: the amount of control and if the tutors are providing a key activity of the business. (By the way, these factors of control and providing a key activity apply to all types of homeschool groups, not just Classical Conversations.) Some homeschool organizations may control their tutors so much that they treat them like employees, while others may allow more freedom and could be properly classified as ICs. Some homeschool organizations may depend heavily on the tutors’ services as the key activity of the business, while other homeschool groups may not use tutors as the key activity because they rely on volunteer parents to teach their classes.

Would a contract help?

You asked, “Would a contract help? It seems like the contract could call the tutor an independent contractor but the Director could still treat them like employees.”

You’ve hit the nail on the heard. Having a contract is not assurance that a tutor is an independent contractor; how they are treated carries more weight in determining proper worker classification.

Worker Classification Determination

You asked, “Is the lawyer the way to go?  Or would you be able to advise on how to handle this?”

I can make a fact-based worker classification determination. In this determination, I substantiate my opinion based on all the facts, not just the few you mentioned, and court cases involving worker classification.


Additionally, I also just updated  my book Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization. It explains both the current criteria the IRS uses and the criteria they have used in the past to determine independent contractor or employee status.

 

 

 

 

You could, of course, convert all your tutors to employees, and sleep better at night! I can explain the steps you’ll need to take.  It will be more paperwork and more expense, but you won’t worry about an IRS investigation on worker status.

Carol Topp, CPA

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Top 10 blog posts of 2016

12/29/2016 by Leave a Comment

 

Here is a round up of the top 10 most important blog posts from HomeschoolCPA in 2016.

 

Many of them have to do with paying workers in a homeschool organization, probably because I was asked a lot of questions about paying volunteers, giving discounts in stead of paying teachers and the difference between employees and independent contractors.

I also spent a lot of time in 2016 researching and writing Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization and my blog posts reflect what I was learning.

Compensation to homeschool board members is taxable income

Paying Workers in a Homeschool Organization updated book is ready!

Are homeschool co-op tuition discounts taxable income? Probably!

Can you discount a homeschool co-op class in lieu of paying the teacher?

How you pay your homeschool teachers could affect the property tax exemption for your host church

Can a homeschool group just get together without having to report to the IRS?

Adding religious purpose to bylaws and Articles

Use Quickbooks online for free

Are discounts to homeschool board members taxable compensation?

How the IRS defines a school

I wonder what 2017 will bring in the world of homeschool organizations!

Sign up for my email list to be kept up to date on the questions homeschool leaders are asking.

P.S. Subscribers to my email list get freebies, discounts and special reports I share only with them.

Carol Topp, CPA
HomeschoolCPA.com

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Do the new overtime rules affect homeschool groups?

12/06/2016 by Leave a Comment

question_mark_15715

The US Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new rules about paying workers overtime. Several people have asked me if homeschool organizations have to follow these new rules.

My answer is that yes, in general, homeschool organization whether nonprofit organizations or for-profit businesses have to follow the rules in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regarding minimum wage and overtime.

But occasionally, there are exceptions, so read on!

New Overtime Rules

The new overtime rules were supposed to take effect December 1, 2016. (They been held up by an injunction by a federal judge). The new proposed rules raise the threshold for when an employee is exempt from getting paid overtime. If your employee makes less than $47,476/year, you must pay them overtime at time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week. The threshold used to be only $23,660/year, so this was a big jump. Under the new proposed rule many more workers are eligible for overtime.

The impact on nonprofits and churches of paying overtime could be huge since many of their employees put in more than 40 hours a week. They work long hours because they are passionate about their mission. Fortunately, the Department of Labor has an exception to the FLSA for nonprofit organizations.

Exceptions to New OT Rule for Nonprofit Organizations

Here’s an except from”Overtime Final Rule and the Non-Profit Sector” a paper from the US Department of Labor available at https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/overtime-nonprofit.pdf

the FLSA applies to businesses with annual sales or business of at least $500,000. For a non-profit, enterprise coverage applies only to the activities performed for a business purpose (such as operating a gift shop or providing veterinary services for a fee); it does not apply to the organization’s charitable activities that are not in substantial competition with other businesses. Income from contributions, membership fees, many dues, and donations (cash or non-cash) used for charitable activities are not counted toward the $500,000 threshold.

Let me unpack that for you.

If your nonprofit has less than $500,000 in “business” income (that does not count your contributions, membership fees or dues), then your organization is not covered under FLSA and you do not need to comply with the overtime rules.

Here’s an example from a longer DOL document, “Guidance for Non-Profit Organizations on Paying Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” available at https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/nonprofit-guidance.pdf

A non-profit animal shelter provides free veterinary care, animal adoption services, and shelter for homeless animals. Even if the shelter takes in over $500,000 in donations in a given year, because the shelter engages only in charitable activities that do not have a business purpose, employees of the animal shelter are not covered on an enterprise basis.

By “not covered on an enterprise basis,” the DoL means the FLSA does not cover the workers and they are not entitled to overtime.

A lot of homeschool nonprofit organizations just breathed a sigh of relief. They rarely have business income and it almost never exceeds $500,000, so they do not have to pay their employees overtime.

Warning: It’s not as simple as it seems!

This issue is not as simple as saying, “My nonprofit doesn’t have $500,000 income, let alone “business” income, so we don’t have to pay any employee overtime.”

I urge you to read the DoL documents I mentioned above and consult with an experienced professional familiar with employee laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act in particular.

The Kentucky Nonprofit Network offers a helpful 9-page report on steps to take if your nonprofit is affected by the new overtime rules (when and if they go into effect).

Carol Topp, CPA

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