Comment Re:Oh hell no! (Score 1) 273
Most contractors work within strict location and time restrictions set by the clients.
I would love to be a contractor working on your kitchen upgrade; I'll get it done when I damn well feel like it and if I get bored at 2am, don't be surprised if I head over the your house to start work on the marble countertops.
On the other hand, most contractors are allowed to subcontract. Say if you are a kitchen contractor on the upgrade and you can't get all your work done (because you took too long on your previous job), you can hire your buddy to help you start this new job. Uber doesn't generally allow you to sub-contract your piecework to your buddy (say your buddy that has a commercial licence and occasionally works for Lyft, so has essentially equivalent qualifications to you). This would fail one of the more common tests for being a contractor vs an employee.
In any case, the IRS has provided reasonably clear guidance in the area of limousine service. If the employing company is a pure dispatch company (e.g., it doesn't control how the drivers drive and the driver is not accountable to the company), then drivers can be considered contractors. If however, the employing company is a transport service (e.g., the company provides detailed instructions to its drivers
and monitors their daily performance and the driver doesn't maintain business like doing advertising or keeping logs), then the drivers must be considered employees.