Location: Houston, TX
I work at a personally owned, small scuba diving business. We are a retail shop but also have certification classes, charters, and other services that we provide.
Most of the employees are only dive instructors or Dive Masters and don’t work in the shop as retail people. But we currently have four employees that work in the shop as retail associates on top of also being instructors/DMs for classes and such.
I am currently only working on the retail side due to an injury that’s keeping me out of the water. Since the shop has been open though (7 years), there has only been one other employee that was a non-diver and was strictly a retail associate.
That said, every employee is a 1099 contractor. I know that’s appropriate for the instructors/DMs when they teach classes. So my question is on the retail side of things. The four employees in the shop (including the manager) are also only 1099, not W2. We work full time in the shop and get paid by the hour.
Should the retail employees not be W2 workers? From my understanding, the retail people that are also instructors/DMs should be on W2s when in the shop and 1099 when they teach classes. Or am I wrong and can you only be classified as one or the other?
Thank you for any insight you can give me!
Comments
Small businesses like to make everybody 1099 because its way cheaper, but it is absolutely a tax law violation. The IRS has a test to determine whether you’re supposed to be W2.