Hiring Mom's HHA as an Independent Contractor?

[PaulM500063]

Mom lives in Florida at home and has had a HHA from an agency for 3 years now. Mom has mobility and dementia issues and needs this help at home.

The agency has deteriorated - difficulty finding weekend coverage (and qualified people) as the aide wants time off one or two weekends per month. Also a recent issue with timely payment to her.

Our aide was apparently hired as an independent contractor. One option is to hire her directly as independent contractor.

So my question - is this a legal, safe option. I've looked at the IRS website.. The wording of contractor vs. employee is vague and confusing.

Any opinions on this subject?

[GailL1]

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@PaulM500063 wrote:

. . . . Our aide was apparently hired as an independent contractor. One option is to hire her directly as independent contractor.

So my question - is this a legal, safe option. I've looked at the IRS website.. The wording of contractor vs. employee is vague and confusing.

Any opinions on this subject?

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You need to look at this IRS site - The classification for this type of work is actually "Household Employee".  It will further define the difference between the employment classification - who is an employee/ who is not an employee.

IRS.gov - Hiring Household Employees

By hiring outright under either classification - there is a lot to decide in addition to how taxes (by whom) are paid.  This is just a starting point.  There are risk factors for each and those too have to be considered by each party and implemented once the manner of hiring classification is decided.