While going offshore, in the right country, might keep your web site up, it won't protect you.
If you are here in the US, and there is any paper/digital trail back to you (Domain ownership, etc.) then you can be in for legal battles. Corporations and the wealthy regularly use their legal staff as a bludgeon. Even pointless civil suits inflict monetary damage through legal fees.
Unless connectivity is your only exposure, offshore won't help.
While we might not be responsible for more than the first $50.00 (if that) there still is the issue of getting the charges off the card.
I've had bogus charges on credit cards twice. The first time on an Amex card and it was taken care of with absolutely no problems, but the second time was another matter. Over two years of phone calls, letters, FAXs, etc. and it was finally resolved. Until this other card company finally complied with the Federal regs, over $700.00 worth of charges (and possibly the interest for the entire 2+ years it was on the card) hung over my head.
What this made clear was how difficult it can be to enforce your rights. Whether instances like this are due to poor procedures and/or incompetence, or deliberate policies of a card company is unclear. It still is a consideration, when using credit cards.
I haven't, and won't, stop using credit cards, but have switched to using wired phones and shredding anything with a card # on it before it gets into the trash.
At the core of all this are ten questions that the IRS has. According to them if you can answer yes to any of them, then you are not a "consultant" and are really a common law employee.
What does this mean? It means that they disallow expenses, deductions, etc. and make you and the firm you contracted for pay more taxes. This is what happened to the "temps" and they did what others have done: sue the company that created the situation. This isn't the first time it's happened, and almost always the company loses to the "temps" because a Federal ruling carries significant weight. It was written up in "Contract Professional" a year or two ago.
Some of the ten questions are: Are you required to attend staff meetings? Are you provided an office, a phone? Are you required to keep regular office hours? etc.
Most of the time the "temps" are going "direct" (i.e. they are independant contractors without the middle man taking a cut). If they were working for another company (W-2, not 1099) who was selling their services, then it'd be impossible to claim they were employees of the buyer. Why does the IRS target the self employed? Turns out that 99% of all W-2 employees pay their taxes, since they don't have much other choice due to it automatically being taken out of their pay. Where as it's something like 95% of the self employed that pay.
So, if you got hurt because of a clueless company's policies get you declared an "employee" then shouldn't you get the benefits of being that employee?
Slashdot Mirror
If you are here in the US, and there is any paper/digital trail back to you (Domain ownership, etc.) then you can be in for legal battles. Corporations and the wealthy regularly use their legal staff as a bludgeon. Even pointless civil suits inflict monetary damage through legal fees.
Unless connectivity is your only exposure, offshore won't help.
I've had bogus charges on credit cards twice. The first time on an Amex card and it was taken care of with absolutely no problems, but the second time was another matter. Over two years of phone calls, letters, FAXs, etc. and it was finally resolved. Until this other card company finally complied with the Federal regs, over $700.00 worth of charges (and possibly the interest for the entire 2+ years it was on the card) hung over my head.
What this made clear was how difficult it can be to enforce your rights. Whether instances like this are due to poor procedures and/or incompetence, or deliberate policies of a card company is unclear. It still is a consideration, when using credit cards.
I haven't, and won't, stop using credit cards, but have switched to using wired phones and shredding anything with a card # on it before it gets into the trash.
What does this mean? It means that they disallow expenses, deductions, etc. and make you and the firm you contracted for pay more taxes. This is what happened to the "temps" and they did what others have done: sue the company that created the situation. This isn't the first time it's happened, and almost always the company loses to the "temps" because a Federal ruling carries significant weight. It was written up in "Contract Professional" a year or two ago.
Some of the ten questions are:
Are you required to attend staff meetings?
Are you provided an office, a phone?
Are you required to keep regular office hours?
etc.
Most of the time the "temps" are going "direct" (i.e. they are independant contractors without the middle man taking a cut). If they were working for another company (W-2, not 1099) who was selling their services, then it'd be impossible to claim they were employees of the buyer. Why does the IRS target the self employed? Turns out that 99% of all W-2 employees pay their taxes, since they don't have much other choice due to it automatically being taken out of their pay. Where as it's something like 95% of the self employed that pay.
So, if you got hurt because of a clueless company's policies get you declared an "employee" then shouldn't you get the benefits of being that employee?