Wanting to hire drivers. Need advise!

well if being complicated is the part your worried about
and your driving too
hire a payroll services company
they will take care of any amount of tax services you want them too
along with filing quarterlies for you

 

We use a payroll service called TLC, they only deal with trucking companies, they will take care of everything including your taxs, compliance and WC. The great thing about them is you can set your self up as an employee also. For us what we saved in WC more than covered the fee they charge for taking care of everything.

 

I can't not stress this enough - get a lawyer, get things written down of what you expect out of a driver and have the lawyer write you up a contract. Then start looking for drivers.

Another bit of advice, always expect you will never find someone who will drive or take care of that truck as you will, so be prepared for some BS. It takes a long time to find the right person to put in the driver's seat.

 

When you give a 1099 to anybody is like that person is an Independent Contractor to you or like many calls "self employed" person. You can't deduct ANYTHING from that pay, no withhold. That person is responsible for His/Her tax, and for insurance; and that person MUST have work compensation. Well, that would push a lot of drivers away; I wouldn't sign in with anybody on 1099. - Now W2 is another pain in the but, a lot of legal work to do, that if you don't do it right you might end up in a big trouble and losing a lot of money. A lot of O/O I know they use legalzoom.com, check them out, they can do EVERYTHING for you.

http://www.legalzoom.com/?cm_mmc=Go...0000066660b3&gclid=CJCl4tX59rsCFYNxOgodmlUAaw

 

I wouldn't use legalzoom for anything to do with this business, they don't provide legal advice, they are a clearing house for boilerplate legal forms aka online legal documentation service.

The problem too many people miss is the problems when you don't have a good contract which is tailored for your business needs - and to have someone who just throw one together is more of a mess than anything else.

As for employee vs. contractor, I had employees twice in my business career, once under a limited partnership and once as a sole proprietor - they are not an issue with setting it up but you have to make sure that you file your quarterly taxes on time and not mess with it. With an employee, you are responsible for more than if they were a contractor and truthfully, if you love to micromanage your drivers, then that's the way to go because they are now just steering wheel holders. If you want someone to think for themselves, contract them as 1099 and let them loose.

 

Actually for accounting service here it is the link: (legalZoom is more to help to set up your business)

http://www.atbsshow.com/

 

In your case, your driver needs to get a W-2. You should look up the IRS regulations on the difference between and employee and a contractor. It doesn't matter what you call them. There is a multi-point standard they consider that includes such things as whether the person controls their schedule, owns their own tools, etc. I believe anyone should be classified an an employee unless they own their own truck and aren't forced dispatched. I am sure many will dispute this since they don't like the implications of this statement but paying people on 1099 when they should be proper employees is running a big. You could get reported/audited in the future and have to pay all the employment taxes retroactively.

 

My Friend as a former business owner who used Independent Contractors Properly, this scenario is not that the IRS will recognize as a IC position, I understand how you want to save time and money but him driving your truck he is your employee, If it was his truck his fuel his maintenance his everything and he worked through your company to haul cars then he would be a IC but you don't want the IRS seizing your ASSets for the fines till you can pay the huge fines by trying to get around paying the fees taxes WC Etc. It just isn't worth it. Just my 2 cents worth, by the way my former business was not in Trucking. But my IC's were just that they worked when they wanted to they ran the way they wanted to and I paid them on a contract that we both had a copy of. Good luck.