Are your individual workers employees or contractors? The ATO has a decision tool to help you!

The decision tool is designed to help you (as a payer) understand whether your individual workers are employees or contractors in order to comply with your Commonwealth tax and superannuation obligations. It is not designed for situations where you enter into an agreement with a company, partnership or trust for them to provide a worker, or obtain workers through an intermediary such as a labour hire firm, or where you are a labour hire firm. To continue reading, click here!

The Commissioner has launched a new ATO webpage containing a range of new information to help businesses address areas of confusion in relation to whether a worker is an employee or a contractor. The ATO has also released the following guides on employees and contractors, including:

• apprentices and trainees are employees, not contractors;
• building and construction industry - how to determine if workers are employees or contractors;     
• common myths about the employee/contractor decision;
• employee or contractor? Get the facts;
• how to determine if workers are employees or contractors;
• how to report a business incorrectly treating employees as contractors;
• know the difference between employees and contractors;
• promoting a level playing field for business; and
• when a worker asks to be contractor.

Source: ATO media release No 2012/32, 1 August 2012

You can also find these links on our Resources page along with many other useful links!