Employee or Independent Contractor?

Do you know the difference?
Both can work from home
The employee is told by the company what hours they are to work and what days they can take off. They are usually only allowed to work a certain number of hours which are determined by the company. In most cases you are prohibited from working at home for another similar type company and must sign what is known as a "non-compete" contract. The employer withholds both their share of FICA and Income Taxes from your check and at the end of the year gives you a W-4 form.

As an Independent Contractor, you are the one who determines when you wish to work and how many hours you wish to work. Now don't get me wrong, the company or companies you work for do have the right to evaluate your work not only for quality but also for quantity of time put into working for them. Some companies adhere to the requirement that you work a given number of hours for them every week or every month and you can be terminated for non performance or poor quality of work. You can decide how many hours you wish to work in a day or a week. Perhaps you wish to work just a couple hours a day on some days but work 8-10 hrs on another and as an independent contractor you can do that. You also can work over 40 hours in a given week if you so desire. There might be times when incentive pay is offered if you work during certain hours but you do not get over-time pay as an independent contractor. As an independent contractor, you will be given a 1099 form by the companies that you have provided services for. It is your responsibility to pay all (they don't pick up part of the tab) of your FICA and income taxes for both state and federal taxes.  Since you are self-employed, a good rule of thumb is to consider 28-33% of what you make will need to be held out to pay your taxes. You may decide that paying your taxes on a quarterly basis is better for you to do than to wait until the end of the year and have to come up with all the money all at one time.

By working at home, either as an employee or as an independent contractor, you are the one who is responsible for the purchase and upkeep of your computer equipment, maintaining the security of documents both in your home office and on your computer. You are required to have what is called a "designated landline phone" which means you must have a phone line totally separate from your personal home phone line and number.

Some companies that you work for as an independent contractor, will also require that you incorporate your business. 

Presently some states are passing legislation which makes it either very difficult or impossible to work from home as an independent contractor. Please check with your state laws to be sure that you are eligible to work as an independent contractor.

In prior articles I have given you some websites to check out. Don't just check them out the one time and forget about them. Many of them may not have had an opening the first time you checked but they may have some now.  There are places like rat race rebellion which will continually have new listings.