TAX INFORMATION
State and Federal Laws
require that while you are working as a temporary you are treated
as an employee and not an independent contractor. Therefore, you
become the employee of the person who pays you and that person must
deduct your social security tax.
At the end of the year you will receive a W-2 from Dental Professionals
which covers salary paid to you by Dental Professionals. Dentists
who paid you directly should be sending you a W-2. If you accepted
a check from a dentist who did not deduct your taxes, then you will
be faced with some extra problems. You will have to file Form 1040
Schedule SE, Computation of Social Security Self-Employment Tax.
This will increase the normal tax you pay by about 7%. Failure to
file this form can result in severe penalties.
When you allow the dentist
to pay you as an independent contractor, you need to be aware that
you are earning 7% less than if you were paid as an employee. You
also do not have the insurance protection that an employee has;
therefore, if you were injured or got hepatitis or some other illness,
you would have no protection unless you carry your own personal
insurance. You also cannot claim unemployment benefits. For an example,
if your hourly wage was $10.00 per hour and you were paid as an
employee, the employer pays $.70 (7% above and beyond your wages)
into your social security fund. By law an employer has to match
whatever you personally pay for social security. This makes your
total earnings $10.70 per hour. The employer sends the $.70 straight
to your social security retirement fund; therefore, you are not
taxed on it as income. If you were not treated as an employee, then
at the end of the year you have to pay your normal social security
contribution of 7% plus the additional 7% which the employer did
not pay. Your total earnings now become $10.00 per hour less $.70
or $9.30 per hour. Multiply this by 8 hours and you have lost $5.60
for that day - enough for a good lunch!
We apologize if this
happened to you. When our clients sign your time sheets that have
a "B" code they have agreed to pay your taxes. The State
and Federal laws also protect you by clearly stating that when an
employer has the right to supervise your work they must treat you
as an employee. Under these laws you do not qualify to be an independent
contractor. If you are faced with this problem, please may we ask
that you simply do not accept the check. Call our office and we
will clear up the matter or pay you ourselves.
We hope all of your experiences
as a temporary are positive ones. If you are not treated with respect
or there are any other problems, please put them in writing and
send them to us. We will keep your name confidential. The information
may help us to bring about some improvements. We also encourage
you to do the same regarding our office and staff. If we have not
treated you properly, then we should make some changes.
We welcome you on our
team of Dental Professionals!
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