Do you use independent contractors (ICs) in your U.S.-based travel business? Or, do you work as an independent contractor for a host agency? Then, you may be in for a shock!
In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state tax agencies have been the primary government agencies enforcing the rules that govern independent contractors. But, in July 2015, the U.S. Labor Department (Labor) issued brand-new policies to define who qualifies as an IC – and, Labor’s definition of an IC is very different from the one used by the IRS. It’s so narrow, in fact, that many ICs currently working in the travel business today’s would not qualify!
If you host ICs, for example, are they “ecomomically dependent” on you (meaning they should really be classified as employees), or are they truly in business for themselves? In other words, if your agency closed today, would your ICs have a large enough following of their own to support themselves? If not, you may have huge risks if your agency gets targeted for a Labor audit in the future.
This month, we’ll hold a special webinar on this issue:
“The New U.S. Labor Rules for Independent Contractors –
What You Need to Know Now”
Wed., May 18 (4 pm ET/1 pm PT)
In this webinar, we’ll break down the details of this new IC definition and how it may affect you (whether you’re an agency owner or an IC). We’ll review the pros and cons of converting ICs to employees (it’s completely legal for U.S. agents who’re paid entirely on commission to be employees) or by requiring ICs to set themselves up as corporations or limited liability companies and obtain their own businesses licenses and seller of travel registrations.
Our presenter is Mark Pestronk, Esq., one of the few attorneys in the world whose practice is focused solely on travel industry issues. He has 39 years of experience advising travel agencies and other travel companies. He serves as the weekly legal columnist for Travel Weekly, the U.S. travel industry’s leading trade publication. Mark is a popular speaker at industry conventions and has given seminars for ASTA, American Express, Travel Weekly, Travelsavers, Radius, Hickory, Carlson, Travel Leaders, GBTA, and Uniglobe. (Also, he’s one of the top all-time money winners on the TV game show “Jeopardy!”.)
We’re asking for a USD$10.00 registration fee for this webinar to cover Mark’s speaking fee. To be fair, we must restrict attendance for the live webinar to agents who register this way. (And, we’ll post a video of Mark’s webinar after the live session – but, it will be available via a password-protected page only to agents who’ve registered for this webinar.) Please use the form below to register!