Independent contractor agreement for secretarial and virtual assistant services
A client may wish this document to be signed to clearly specificy the independent contractor relationship. The client wants to make sure that you are not classified as an employee, but rather an independent contractor. If not the client will be held liable for extra taxes, recordkeeping, and safety requirements. A signed contract can prevent this from happening by showing the validity of the independent contractor relationship. Consult the laws of your state and country regarding requirements affecting independent contractor arrangements. What is an independent contractor - an independent contractor is a natural person, business or corporation which provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract. Unlike an employee, an independent contractor does not work regularly for an employer but works as and when required. There is no extra cost involved in becoming an independent contractor, but you must be seen as one in the eyes of your clients wanting to secure your services. A client may also require minimum insurances to be held by your business depending on which country you are operating out of. A big benefit to your clients is the fact that all your clients do is pay your invoice and that's it. No mucking around with superannuation, income taxes, leave payments for you. This is so much easier for them. So basically clients may require you to sign an independent contractor agreement for secretarial and virtual assistant services provided in order to understand that you are not an employee of their company. Not all clients ask for such a contract to be signed though. Virtual assistant forms and templates You may also be wishing to find information on putting in place client agreements pertaining to specific work to be performed for the client, ie: rates agreed up, work to be performed, timeframe, etc. And a myriad of other forms that will assist you in your buisness. Go to the
Virtual assistant forms and templates
page where you can purchase a great array of all the forms you will need and samples of compelted forms too.
Australia specific information In Australia, and I'm not sure how this issue is ruled in other countries, but our taxation office has what's called an 80/20 rule which states the following: The 80/20 Rule deems contractors and consultants to be employees for tax purposes if they earn more than 80% of their income from one client. So in essense it's best for a virtual assistant to have more that one client for tax purposes - again speak to your accountant on this issue as it's probably country specific - otherwise you will be seen as an employee of your client in the tax department's eyes. So therefore as a contractor it's adviseable not to perform more than 80% of your work for one particular client.
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